“You should lay still for a while,” continued the boy. “I’ve used up too much of my mana, so I couldn’t heal you fully. I’m sure you’re still pretty sore.”
He was right. Pain still lingered throughout my body. I attributed it to the big hit I’d taken from the boss monster, whose image was still etched into my memory.
“Where am I?” I asked. “I thought I was fighting the boss.”
“The boss from the Dark Corridors had the honor of turning into my EXP. It’s in a better place now,” replied the boy.
“You beat it?”
“I was able to charge up my magic thanks to you drawing its attention. Easy one-shot,” he explained with peculiar phrasing.
If I was to take his words at face value, he seemed to imply he was a mage and had saved me from danger.
“Oh, there’s no need for hostility. Though, I guess I can’t blame you for not trusting humans,” he said.
“Shut it,” I snapped. “Who are you? Did you help me so you can enslave me?”
I thrust my fist toward the strangely dressed boy’s chin, and he began to panic and sputter like a coward.
“No, no, not at all! I just wanted the EXP. Honest! The thought of making you my slave has never even crossed my mind!”
“Really?” I asked hesitantly.
“Sorry, I did have some naughty thoughts about what it’d be like if you were my slave. Aha ha.”
Having heard his confession, I wrapped my hands around his neck and began to squeeze silently.
“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Don’t kill me! I’m sorry. I’m sorry!”
The boy desperately screamed and flailed about.
Suddenly, a sharp pain from the lingering injury shot through my arm. Figuring I’d punished him enough for cracking a joke in bad taste, I let the boy go.
He gave me an accusatory look with teary eyes and said, “That was messed up... I did end up helping you, you know.”
“I do thank you for that,” I replied.
“Oh, and another thing...” he added.
“What?”
“It might not be the best idea to move around too much in your...current position. I mean, I’m not complaining, but I’m guessing you won’t be too happy if—oh, careful! I can almost see them!”
With that, the boy’s gaze shifted away from my eyes.
That was when I realized the towel was sliding off of my body and revealing my bare skin, all the way down to my chest and crotch. The clothes I was wearing originally, which were of poor quality to begin with, had been shredded so badly that they were practically pieces of cloth hanging on by mere threads. I was pretty much completely naked.
I grabbed the towel back up and used it to cover myself.
“Did you look...?” I asked.
“Just a little bit, when I was carrying you here.”
My hands clenched into fists.
“I-I’m sorry! It wasn’t on purpose, I swear!” he said.
“I suppose I can’t blame you when I’m in this state,” I confessed, noting that the boy was still courteously looking away. “But more importantly...”
“Yes?”
“Where are they?” I asked.
The boy seemed to understand who I was talking about right away.
“Ah,”—his eyes turned deeper into the dungeon—“they’ve all passed away. It was already too late by the time I arrived. Judging from the state they were in, they must’ve gone straight to the afterlife. Oh, what’s the phrase they use here? They were ‘embraced by Ornyx the Black’?”
“I see...” I said half-heartedly.
I was rather relieved to hear my masters had died. Now, I didn’t have to worry about fulfilling their vulgar demands, which had been my greatest fear since becoming a slave.
“Did they bring you here as a combat slave?” he asked.
I nodded. Indeed, I’d recently been brought to this town as a slave and had been purchased by that group of Divers. They’d demanded I fight in the dungeons until I’d grown accustomed to my restraints and had taken me deep into the Dark Corridors.
“That boss monster was clearly too much for them to handle,” I said.
“They must’ve gotten carried away just because you’re a Long-Ears,” replied the boy. “There are a lot of Divers out there who mistakenly think they’ve become more capable just because someone strong joins their team.”
“I suppose so.”
It sounded true enough. Those Divers had been under the illusion that they were unstoppable after acquiring a strong slave, and they’d failed to stay vigilant. Divers, as their names implied, made a living by diving into dungeons. Failure to stay cautious at all times was a rudimentary and critical mistake.
Even this strange-looking boy was staring at the path leading to the Dark Corridors with a cold look in his eyes. He seemed rather inept, but that was unmistakably the look of a true Diver. His eyes were hardened by battle—or, rather, there was a dryness in them that came from experience and repeated dives into dungeons.
In any case, there was still one thing bothering me.
“What do you intend to do with me?” I asked.
“Good question,” he said. “I am a mage, so what if I told you I’m going to force you into a slave contract with me?”
“I’ll rip you in half,” I shot back.
“I’m sorry it was only a joke I don’t know what came over me it just came spewing out please don’t hit me I’ll literally die if I get punched by one of the strongest races in Do-Melta!” he blurted out in a panic without pause.
I watched him in silence. First, he ran his mouth, then he groveled at my feet while crying and apologizing.
A mage could easily put a slave in their place, so I couldn’t understand what game he was playing here. Perhaps he was too much of a coward. It was hard to believe a coward like him could venture so deep into a dungeon all alone, but the fear he showed in response to my malice was clearly not an act.