The next day.
We finished all preparations to leave the Magic Tower.
If there was one last thing left to do now,
"To mourn the victims who, regrettably, left our side in this dungeon..."
—there was attending the memorial service for the Magic Tower mages, including Baker.
While everyone had their heads bowed in silent prayer, I slowly kept my head lowered and turned it from side to side, checking the faces of the others.
"Huk... h-heuk..."
Some wore expressions of simple regret, while a few others seemed to be attending the memorial service merely as a formality.
Their eyes held a look of doubt, as if to say, 'Why was I dragged to a place like this when I have research to do?'
The rest were all shedding tears.
I.
No, we.
Though we stood here, we could not belong to any of those three categories.
To feel mere regret, to attend as a formality—
We had fought alongside those who lost their lives there.
And to shed tears—
We alone had survived there.
That is why we could not make any expression at all.
At this very moment, we were outsiders who could not be understood by anyone, anywhere.
No matter what reaction we showed, someone was bound to disapprove.
But,
that didn't mean we were standing here lingering about without a single thought or feeling.
"Kkeup..."
Bel was swallowing her sobs next to me.
Everyone else was the same.
All stood here with gloomy expressions, enduring the gazes of those belonging to the Magic Tower.
—Pat, pat.
I slowly patted Bel's back as gently as possible.
The memorial stone was erected on the 31st floor of the Magic Tower.
It was to honor the thirty-one fallen.
The number of casualties was significant in itself, but it seemed a memorial stone had been erected because among them was a 7th-Circle mage—a precious talent even within the Magic Tower.
Ah, it's not that I was saying it in a 'Why erect a memorial stone for something like this?' sort of way.
It's similar... but different.
I think their lives were precious, and more than worthy of being honored.
Instead, how should I put this...
In our mercenary business, people dying off like this is far too common an occurrence.
So even if we held memorial services, we didn't erect memorial stones.
We spent that time taking on one more request instead,
and used that money to keep our mercenary corps running.
To begin with, memorial services were nothing more than gathering to drink a glass of beer.
Hmm... come to think of it, does that mean we held memorial services every day?
Unless we were in the middle of a request, we mostly ended our days with alcohol.
...
I suppose so.
Perhaps everyone had been drinking without a thought, quietly missing someone.
***
After the memorial service ended, we gathered in front of the teleport spot.
"It seems you've experienced only unpleasant things at the Magic Tower. Truly a pity."
"Not at all. Thank you for your consideration."
The one who came to see us off was Martin, a senior 7th-Circle mage.
He had been one of those at the very front, shedding tears as he mourned Baker during the service.
He had probably been very close to Baker.
"On behalf of the Magic Tower, I convey my thanks for your hard work. If it weren't for you, the dungeon breaking would have been only a matter of time."
"Not at all. We are sorry we could not save more people."
As Veronica bowed her head, we bowed together with her.
"..."
Martin was silent for a moment.
Since we had our heads bowed, we could not see what expression he wore as he looked at us.
After a brief silence, he said to us,
"You'll probably have to save even more people in the future. There may be times when you can save everyone, but there will also be times when you cannot save everyone."
He said this especially to Veronica.
"Don't carry all those people in your heart. And don't think that you must save everyone next time."
He turned his back and slowly walked away from us.
"Having lived life, I came to believe that a person's life flows according to fate, regardless."
Then he stopped briefly and raised his head.
"It simply was bad luck. Luck. It was just... fate."
He left just like that.
'I sure do hear this often... very often.'
Hearing it so frequently here and there, it seemed the word fate was not something known only to a chosen few.
Mages—the most rational profession in the world.
Seeing even such mages speak of fate made me feel quite strange.
Somehow, it made me think that in the end, human reason and effort could not overcome fate.
***
Having finished all our business at the Magic Tower just like that, we exited through teleportation.
Our next destination was... simply various dungeons that had appeared here and there.
None of them were particularly difficult dungeons.
Most were newborn intermediate dungeons, and since they had not had enough time for demonic energy to accumulate sufficiently, the difficulty could not be high.
Being assigned only such dungeons was... well, it was good from our perspective, but from the standpoint of the Empire or the world as a whole, it felt like something of a waste.
Like using an ox-slaughtering knife to kill chickens?
But,
on the other hand, I could understand the Empire's position.
How should I put it...
They had probably sent us to places with a balanced level of danger to aid our growth, only to find they were practically deathtraps upon entry.
This time, they must be choosing and sending us only to places that seemed definitely safe.
It spoke volumes about just how severely the person in charge of determining our next destination had been scolded by their superiors.
By the way, the place where I was thinking this right now was,
—Swish, slash!
"Goooorgh!!"
inside an intermediate dungeon.
Was it called something like the Goblin Forward Outpost?
Well, anyway.
We were quickly traversing the dungeon interior and cutting down every monster in sight.
At strongest, Hobgoblins.
They would have been opponents perfectly suited for a low-tier Expert, but they were no match for us, who possessed the martial force of high-tier Experts.
"2nd-Circle fire magic—Fire Arrow."
While clearing various dungeons, I had been practicing magic in my spare time.
Lately, I hadn't had the time to properly learn magic, so I was still stuck at the 3rd-Circle,
but I had still acquired enough proficiency to freely spam 2nd-Circle spells.
As for 3rd-Circle... I still don't need a full incantation, but I have to recite the activation phrase?
My swordsmanship side was naturally in a state of stunted growth.
There weren't any moments where I particularly needed to make good use of my sword,
and there weren't any situations where I had to overcome a difficult crisis, so perhaps it was inevitable.
To the extent that my senses and fine details were merely maintained?
My growth had stopped at exactly that level.
Of course, I'm not some freak who likes work or enjoys fighting.
But since I had joined the Hero's party and taken on the mission of catching the Demon King together, I couldn't help but worry about my delayed growth.
—Rumble.
This dungeon too was cleared with ease before long.
Now what we had to do was secure lodging in a nearby large city and wait for our next orders.
—Plop.
After arriving at our lodging,
I washed up and lay down on the bed.
I feel like it's been quite a while since I've done this,
probably because until now, situations relaxed enough to use this expression hadn't come up often.
But,
now was very different, quite leisurely.
"Whew..."
Already a month had passed since the incident at the Magic Tower.
I remember that shortly after that incident ended, the party members had tried to force the mood up somehow.
Whether learning magic from Aldric and Signika noona, or sparring among ourselves.
Truthfully, none of us had been in a completely okay situation even then.
It was only when the memorial service took place that a slight gloominess showed through; until then, honestly, we had looked like people without a care on the surface.
If that atmosphere had continued, the party would probably have kept carrying out requests in that gloomy state, but
"No, no. Shwick! Yeah, shwick!"
fortunately, starting about two weeks ago, the atmosphere had lightened, so like now, I could learn magic from noona like this,
"Don't just do magic; shoot your bow too. If you don't shoot now, you'll lose your touch??"
or meet Elladrion-nim, who was afraid of having her disciple stolen,
"This time too?"
or spar with Veronica, who still speaks formally to me despite knowing we're the same age.
Anyway, we had returned to something resembling daily life.
This might be a bit out of the blue, but
we had been thinking of our journey as an adventure.
To catch the Demon King, to save the world.
Well, those grand descriptors were fine too, but
we tried to think of the very perception of it as an adventure, and we tried our best to accumulate the kinds of stories and memories one would share in an ordinary adventure.
The path we walk will surely be a thorny one, but
that doesn't mean we always have to maintain a gloomy and serious atmosphere.
Laughing and chatting and enjoying ourselves,
sometimes relying on each other as we move forward.
Like what the senior mage Martin said when he last saw us off.
Let's meet our approaching fate with a smile.
We didn't say it aloud, but we had all made that promise in our hearts.
***
The next day.
I was trying to spend the day as usual with the party members when,
"Guys, gather around for a moment."
Signika noona informed us that the Imperial Court had decided our next destination.
"Well... it's nothing like clearing a dungeon; they want us to go to the Holy Kingdom."
"The Holy Kingdom? Why there all of a sudden?"
"The thing is..."
Signika looked up at me quietly.
"They said they need to investigate Evan?"
???
Heh, heh.
Fuck.
I knew it. Ever since I woke up in the Magic Tower infirmary, I knew.
I had a feeling this would happen.
In the end, I'm being dragged off as a test subject.
Fuck.