It's Dangerous Outside the Dungeon, Master

* * *

[To think you’re going outside the dungeon at this time…]

As I nursed Sonia back to health and finally set out on a journey with her, I was dressed differently from usual.

Not as a noble young lady with black hair and purple eyes, but as a wandering mage with golden hair and blue eyes.

This was a measure taken using potions containing dyeing and makeup magic to cover the eyes and hair, not an illusion magic cast on me. It had a shorter duration than illusion magic but was more stable in return.

Additionally, I drew the entire eyebrows a bit thicker to add a slightly tougher impression so that I would look even more different from my usual appearance.

[I’ve procured the items for you, but please be careful, Lady.]

[Thanks for your concern. And for getting the items.]

[It’s nothing! Well then, until next time.]

I received help from Scarlet to procure items for going outside the dungeon.

For this, Eve and Mire had to lead goblins and skeletons to raid a bandit camp and empty it, but the process was smooth without any difficulties.

Morning was the time when everything wakes up, but the dawn before that was the most dangerous time.

“It seems the problem has been resolved? Teacher.”

The start of the journey was very peaceful.

There was little chance of monsters or beasts appearing in the vicinity as my soldiers had already cleared the area, and the place where I had built the cabin was very sunny.

As I went out the cabin door, Sonia, who had already finished preparations, saw me and waved her hand.

“Yes. I have a child I care for, but it kept blocking me and wouldn’t let me go.”

“You have a pet, I see.”

“A pet… hehe.”

Sonia made a groundless misunderstanding, but I couldn’t help but smile at that misunderstanding.

In fact, Evangeline’s behavior often does feel like a large dog or an affectionate monkey, so I momentarily sympathized with her words.

Seeing my smile, Sonia also smiled spontaneously.

“You must care for it a lot.”

“It’s a child that was by my side when I went through a period of loss.”

“Ah.”

“Oh… I’m sorry.”

Sonia’s expression darkened and she lost her words, probably recalling her friends at the mention of ‘loss’. When I apologized, she shook her head vigorously saying it’s not that, and focused her gaze ahead.

“No, it’s not that, Teacher. I’m sorry for not letting you freely boast about your precious child.”

“Don’t say that, Sonia. … But you need to get used to it now. For your sake.”

“You’re right, Miss Rita. Because I couldn’t be of any help at the crucial moment. From now on, so that doesn’t happen…”

It was important to make her recall her ‘mistakes’.

The more she becomes immersed in the faults she thinks are her own, and the more she wants to escape from them, the easier things would become.

Her goodness still created a feeling like it was scratching my heart, but I had no intention of postponing necessary tasks because of that.

She had a high possibility of becoming a good opportunity for me.

Although it became difficult to postpone alerting about the danger of the new dungeon. Whether to delay the time for the second attack on the dungeon or choose another method.

For that, investigating the enemy was essential.

“You need to put more strength into constructing the otherworld coordinates there.”

On the evening of the first day, which passed without incident, I taught her a few offensive spells.

A few spells that she could use now with little burden and about two higher-level spells that she couldn’t use yet but could fully digest, given her magic power level.

This was something I had been doing since we were in the cabin.

“Ah, so that’s why I quickly lose power when I summon fire.”

“Yes. Elemental magic is ultimately about drawing energy that’s not of this world.”

“I see. Thank you, Teacher.”

It was an awkward situation where I, who had only been in this world for just over two weeks, was teaching Sonia, who had been involved in magic for at least a few years, but ‘Nobility’ helped me appear as if there was nothing strange about it.

It made me look as if I had known for years the magic I had just learned by purchasing human spell books from the Mammon Guild a short while ago.

More precisely, it wasn’t about raising proficiency but making it ‘appear that way.’

Either way, there was no problem in teaching Sonia, who was still an apprentice mage. Thanks to my own magical talent not being too low.

“Excellent. You’re doing really well, Sonia.”

“…Thank you.”

“What’s wrong?”

Her expression darkened again.

As I patted her shoulder and asked why, she voiced the thought I had been guessing.

The reason why she was learning magic from me.

“If I had practiced and learned more magic… if I could have used it… then my friends wouldn’t have died like that, right?”

“It’s not your fault.”

“No. It is my fault. Because I was lacking…”

“Sonia…”

Her body had healed, but the wounds in her heart were still deepening.

Sonia buried her face in my chest and cried for a long time. Until she fell asleep almost to the point of fainting.

This, too, was a daily routine that had continued since we were in the cabin, so my hands were quite skilled at laying her down and putting her to sleep.

“Jack… Remi…”

The voice of a fragile woman crying while grasping my hand.

That voice scratched my heart again, but my heart maintained its pattern without wavering at all.

I was getting used to ‘evil’.

“Sonia! Get down!”

Boom!

“Kieek!!”

The next day, there was a small attack.

As we were resting in the shadow of a rock while walking, a few goblins suddenly sprang out from behind us.

The goblin in the lead attacked Sonia.

And what took that goblin’s life was an arrow I shot.

More precisely, Mire and a few skeletons reached out from the shadow of the rock connected to me to grab the goblin and then finished it off by shooting an arrow, but there was no one here besides us who could know that.

“Haa… haa…”

“Good job. Are you alright?”

“Y-Yes…”

And in that attack, Sonia didn’t manage to defeat a single monster.

Because the other three goblins also lost their lives to my arrows before they could approach or run away.

The bow that the unusually competent Eve had made for me. Although I had only practiced with it for a few days, I could use it quite practically.

Perhaps the blood of an archery tribe flowed in me as well.

“That bow… it’s not for hunting.”

“It’s barely usable.”

“Even Remia couldn’t shoot and kill fleeing goblins. They’re such cunning and fast creatures…”

“Sonia?”

“…I’m not being helpful. Even though I learned attack magic…”

After that, apart from encountering some beasts, nothing special happened, but I could see her face darken once more at the evening camp.

By now, she had become accustomed to relying on me, and speaking while tightly holding my hand had also become familiar. What she whispered was about her own mistakes and faults.

“Originally, there’s almost nothing a mage can do in an ambush. Mages exert great power in orderly formations, right?”

“Still. That’s why Jack always told me to carry at least a club…”

“Sonia needs healing more urgently. You can learn self-defense later.”

“…I’m sorry, Teacher.”

“It’s okay. Sonia can do well.”

I know that something like a proper argument doesn’t help.

For someone who says, ‘I can’t do it,’ expectations and confidence only become a burden.

If I truly wanted her awakening here, I should press her more or create something she can do and make her achieve things one by one.

In this world where psychiatry and such aren’t developed, the most effective mental treatment method beyond this would probably be direct hypnotic magic treatment.

But I didn’t do that.

“You’ll be able to do well.”

In my eyes reflected in Sonia’s pupils as we faced each other, a vivid purple light was flowing out.

The light of magic that seeps into people’s hearts.

* * *

Thus, on the early evening of the third day of travel.

Considering Sonia’s stamina, we had walked a distance that was slightly less than two days.

“Sister Maria…?”

We were able to encounter a group of adventurers.

An adventure party led by a woman with black eyes similar to Remia’s.

Although the sisters’ hair colors were completely different, with Remia’s being blue-gray and this woman’s reddish-brown, their eye shapes and facial features were surprisingly similar.

Moreover, Sonia’s face brightened up when she saw the woman at the lead, so I could be certain that she was Remia’s sister.

“Sonia? You!”

Unlike Sonia, who hesitated after trying to run to Maria while holding my hand, the brown-haired adventurer ran over without hesitation and embraced Sonia.

“Thank you…! Thank you, God…! How much I’ve worried about you!! Jack, Remi! Where are they? Hm?”

“Ah…”

At Maria’s next words, the vitality that had bloomed on Sonia’s face slowly died.

A woman who had already withered, bowing her head deeply in front of Maria while tightly grasping my hand.

And another woman gradually lost the joy on her face and withered like a wilting flower once she saw that sight.

I was the only one who could speak.

“For now. Sonia is in a very weakened state. She managed to walk this far, but… it seems difficult for her to walk any further now.”

In the end, the two groups stopped walking and decided to spend the day at a place where a nearby stream flowed.

The other adventurers hired by Maria set out to search and hunt in the vicinity, and only three women and one man sat around the camp where the fire had not yet been lit.

More precisely, with Sonia placed inside a tent, Maria, myself, and the man who introduced himself as Daniel.

“This is…”

“These are the belongings of the two.”

At that place, I handed over Jack and Remia’s adventurer badges to Maria.

The badges that Sonia had said the three of them made on the same day, with communication and tracking magic that allowed them to talk to each other from a distance.

Things she still didn’t want to believe were mementos.

“Ah…”

“Maria. We’ve come this far. We have to keep looking. We have to find the two’s bo… no, their whereabouts.”

Maria, who couldn’t hide her sorrow as she preciously held the two badges in her hands and pressed her head against them, and Daniel, who put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her, not knowing what to do.

I’m not sure if it’s sincere, but anyway, contrary to the first impression, he was showing dedication to her.

On the surface, he looked quite roguish.

“I’ll assign two adventurers to you two. You can move directly to the city. We’ll continue to look for the dungeon.”

Perhaps thanks to that, Maria raised her head and regained her composure a moment later.

It was a very quick recovery for someone who had lost family. Probably because she was a veteran adventurer who had experienced losing people, even if they weren’t close.

“No, Miss Maria.”

“What…?”

I shook my head at Maria, who was steeling her resolve like that.

Although I had prepared sufficient defenses against the dungeon, there was no need to let her find the dungeon, just in case of any possibility.

“It will probably be useless.”

And there was sufficient grounds to dissuade her as well.