Despite a lingering sense of lethargy, I made it through my morning classes and finally reached the lunch break.
Standing up, I called out to Yuji. He seemed to have bounced back from his morning gloom and was acting like his usual self.
"Yuji, let’s go grab some food."
"Yeah, sure."
"I have something I want to discuss, so I’m going to invite Hiiragi-san too. That alright?"
"I don't mind... but what's this about?"
"I'll explain everything once we’re with Hiiragi-san. Hang on a second, I’ll go talk to her."
After giving Yuji a quick heads-up, I walked over to where Hiiragi-san was chatting with her friends.
She looked like she was having a good time, and I hesitated for a split second before steealing my resolve.
"Do you have a moment, Hiiragi-san?"
"...Kokonoe-kun? What is it?"
"I have something I’d like to consult with you about. Would you like to eat lunch with us? Yuji will be there too, of course."
Hiiragi-san paused her conversation and turned toward me. As I extended the invitation, the girl she had been talking to looked momentarily surprised. I hurriedly clarified that Yuji would be joining us.
I had to make it clear that Yuji would be there, otherwise some strange rumors might start spreading.
"A consultation? Is it something that can't wait?"
"No, it's not particularly urgent. If now is bad, we could talk after school instead..."
"I see..."
Hiiragi-san turned back to her friends, exchanged a few words to confirm her plans, then turned back to me with an answer.
"All right."
"Great, thanks. Shall we go, then?"
"Yes."
Hiiragi-san pulled a bento bundle from her bag, excused herself, and stood up. I returned to my own seat to grab my lunch and a notebook before meeting back up with Yuji.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
"No problem. Where’s Hiiragi-san?"
"She’s coming."
"Right. Let's move, then."
"Yeah."
I called out to Yuji, who already had his lunch ready, and we met Hiiragi-san at the classroom entrance. Together, we made our way to our usual bench in the courtyard.
As we sat down and started eating, I told them about Mika and Saori.
At first, the two of them listened with looks of confusion, but as my story progressed, their faces grew tense and they let out heavy sighs.
"Is that really true?"
"Yeah. Unfortunately, it seems to be. I checked with a few other guys who have younger siblings in the first year, and they’ve all heard similar stories."
"...I see."
Yuji pressed a hand to his forehead as if he were fighting off a headache.
Well, that was a natural reaction.
"...Have you confirmed this with the teachers?"
"I haven't had the chance to talk to them yet, so I haven't confirmed it with them."
"I see. But if you’ve gathered that many similar testimonies, it’s unlikely that Mika-chan and her friend were just making things up."
"If they were going to lie, I think they would have come up with something a bit more plausible."
"True."
Hiiragi-san let out a troubled sigh of her own.
"So, Daiki, what do you want to do?"
"I'm thinking of bringing them into our party and training them as explorers."
"...Into our party?"
"I was planning for us to spend until summer vacation retraining our coordination on the shallow floors anyway, so I thought the timing was perfect..."
Of course, I had no intention of taking beginners like Mika and Saori down to the 30th floor. Even with us leading them, doing something like that would result in serious injuries in no time.
"I mean, that was the plan, yeah, but doesn't bringing amateurs like Mika-chan change things?"
"He's right, Kokonoe-kun. Practicing coordination drills and instructing beginners are two very different things..."
"Well, maybe so... but I think this is a good opportunity."
"A good opportunity?"
While they both looked puzzled, I handed them each a notebook I had brought along.
"During Golden Week, I went through the footage of our dungeon dives that we’ve been recording. In those notebooks, I’ve picked out and written down the problematic points I noticed. Here, take a look."
The two of them took the notebooks and opened them with skeptical expressions.
By the time they finished reading the first page, they both looked visibly shaken as they looked back at me.
"...Hey, what is this?"
"The items in red are problems that need to be fixed immediately. Yellow are things to be addressed sooner rather than later, and blue are things I'd like us to improve if possible. Of course, this is just my subjective analysis, so if you think something should be changed, I'm open to suggestions..."
"...There are a lot of red and yellow items."
"That’s just how it looked once I analyzed everything."
"..."
The two of them set their half-eaten lunches down on the bench and began reading the notebooks with intense focus.
"As you can see, I found quite a few issues with how we act inside the dungeon. It’s the price we paid for relying too heavily on our skills."
"...Looking at this, it’s just like Daiki said. It seems like our actions in the dungeon were full of problems beyond just our teamwork."
"You’re right. Now that it’s all written out like this, I can think of several times where these points applied."
Yuji furrowed his brow while Hiiragi-san looked like her head was throbbing.
The list of items I’d written down totaled somewhere between seventy and eighty points.
"Most of the problems listed in those notebooks are skills you would normally pick up just by exploring dungeons without relying on special abilities."
"...True. Maybe we really were relying on our skills a bit too much..."
"Right? That’s why I think there’s a benefit to diving into the dungeon with Mika and Saori."
"...?"
Taking amateurs along means we have to pay even more attention to our surroundings and conduct much more thorough preliminary checks for things like traps. Parts of the process we used to breeze through by relying on our levels and skills can no longer be glossed over when we have people to protect.
It’s the perfect environment for us to retrain ourselves, and I think it’s a good chance to review our own skills through the process of teaching them.
"Yuji, you understand the benefits of teaching others, don't you?"
"Well, yeah. It’s true that by teaching someone else, you can reflect on yourself and notice your own shortcomings. That's a definite plus. But is it really worth the risk of taking Mika-chan and her friend into a dungeon where their lives are on the line? I’m not so sure..."
"Even if it’s a bit dangerous, some things can only be learned through actual experience. I think this will be good for Mika and Saori too, not just for us."
"Hmm, when you put it that way..."
Yuji agonized over my words.
Just being protected all the time wouldn't do Mika any good. As long as it wasn't a fatal level of danger, it was better for them to experience some of it to get used to things.
"Hey, Kokonoe-kun. On a different note, if you’re taking your sister and her friend with us, does that mean you’re going to let them use the Slime Dungeon beforehand?"
While Yuji was deep in thought, Hiiragi-san made sure no one else was around and then asked me with a slightly anxious expression.
It was true that raising their levels in the Slime Dungeon beforehand would reduce the danger, but...
"I was actually planning on consulting you two about that."
"...?"
"Using this situation with Mika and Saori as a catalyst, I'm thinking about telling my family about the dungeon."
"What?"
Hiiragi-san looked dumbfounded, while Yuji narrowed his eyes, trying to parse my intent.
Revealing the existence of the dungeon to my family meant increasing the number of people who knew about it, and more people knowing meant a higher risk of a leak. Even if someone intends to keep it a secret, a slip of the tongue can happen in daily conversation. Even if the leaked information is only fragmentary, little things add up, and eventually, the full picture of a privately owned Slime Dungeon could be exposed. Therefore, the best way to keep information hidden is to minimize the number of people who have it.
If no one knows, the information can't leak.
"Well, I expected that reaction."
"Of course you did. You’re talking about revealing something we’ve kept hidden all this time, even if it is just to your family."
"He's right. You understand the risks of disclosing the dungeon, don't you, Kokonoe-kun?"
"Yeah, I do. I understand what you’re both saying."
If information about a privately owned Slime Dungeon were to leak, I could expect state-level intervention at the very least. My house and the surrounding area would likely be seized, and my family would almost certainly be detained under the guise of "protecting important individuals."
And then there’s us, who have been using the Slime Dungeon in secret—we’d probably be detained as well and then thrown into government-owned dungeons as "voluntary civilian collaborators."
"But I can't keep quiet about it forever..."
"...Well, that's true."
"...I suppose so."
We all let out a sigh in unison. Since the entrance to the dungeon was inside a desk drawer, we unfortunately couldn't keep it hidden forever.
In fact, the more surprising thing was that we had managed to keep the Slime Dungeon a secret from my family for an entire year. It wouldn't have been strange if they had found out at any point during that time.
"So, rather than the existence of the dungeon being exposed in an unexpected situation, I think it's better to tell them after setting the stage properly."
"...Well, Daiki might be right. It might be safer to talk about it while things are under his control, rather than having them find out at a bad time and causing a scene."
"Yeah. It might be better than the dungeon being discovered before we've taken any countermeasures."
The two of them seemed to give their reluctant approval, agreeing that my point had some merit.
To be honest, I personally wanted to keep the Slime Dungeon a secret as well. I couldn't predict how my family would react, and I felt guilty about having kept it a secret for so long.
But I had also felt that I would have to tell them eventually.
"Hey, Daiki. When do you plan on talking to your family? I assume you don’t mean today or tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah. Even if I do tell them, I’ll need a preparation period. Since Mika and Saori are taking the Armed Exploration Permit for Special Underground Structures Issuance Exam after midterms... it'll probably be in about a month."
"In a month, huh..."
The midterm exams were at the end of May. It would be a shame if the shock of learning about the dungeon caused Mika to lose her focus and fail her exams.
Considering that, the best timing would be after their explorer exam was over. If I told them before the exam, they would definitely want to raise their levels. If that happened, they might end up standing out in a bad way just like I did, which could lead to trouble. If a pair of siblings both left records that were far beyond what beginners should be capable of, even the Dungeon Association would likely start investigating.
"Yeah, I guess that's reasonable..."
Yuji stroked his chin thoughtfully and nodded, seemingly satisfied with the timeline I had proposed.
But...
"I'm sorry, Kokonoe-kun. I still can't agree to telling them about the dungeon."
"...What?"
Just as I was feeling relieved to have Yuji’s approval, Hiiragi-san shook her head apologetically and refused to support disclosing the information.
"I agree that we’ll have to talk about it eventually. It’s not something we can keep hidden forever. But even so, I'm against increasing the number of people who know about the dungeon right now."
"...Why?"
"Because..."
Hiiragi-san looked troubled by my question. She glanced at Yuji once before speaking again.
"Kokonoe-kun. To be honest, our current situation is quite exceptional."
"...Exceptional?"
"Yes. Do you know how many civilian explorer teams in Japan have defeated an area boss? Not counting the Self-Defense Forces teams, of course."
"...Um, maybe twenty or thirty teams?"
I felt like if a team worked as professional explorers and dived into dungeons daily for nearly six months, that many teams would have been able to achieve it...
However, it seemed my prediction was way off. Hiiragi-san let out a long sigh when she heard my answer.
"...Sigh. There aren't that many. You could count them on one hand."
"...What?"
"I looked it up on the internet in detail, and every team that has succeeded in subjugating an area boss is either a large-scale joint team with dozens of people or a corporate team backed by a company."
Hearing Hiiragi-san's words, my thoughts momentarily ground to a halt. One hand?
Was that... really true?
"How did you find that out, Hiiragi-san? I don't think that kind of information was listed on the Association's website..."
Yeah, exactly. Like Yuji said, where did she get that information?
The Association’s terms stated that they generally wouldn't disclose personal information unless the individual requested it, so shouldn't it be impossible to find out?
"From the websites of the explorer teams that defeated them. When I searched for 'area boss' and 'subjugation,' several results came up. Defeating an area boss is great publicity, so every team proudly posts it on their website to advertise. For a company, an area boss subjugation is a business achievement, and for joint teams, it serves as a way to attract members and sponsors."
"...I see. I suppose for teams that aren't like ours, an area boss subjugation is the perfect promotional material."
...Now that she mentioned it, it would be more unusual not to advertise it.
To us, it was an enemy that didn't put up much of a fight, but to other normal explorers, it must be a formidable foe.
"I read through the subjugation processes written on the websites and filtered out the ones that seemed suspicious, which left about four teams. These four teams have definitely succeeded in subjugating an area boss. Even if we include those who, like us, don't publicly advertise their achievements, the total number shouldn't exceed ten."
"..."
"And besides..."
Hiiragi-san’s expression clouded over, as if she were finding it difficult to say something.
"Since around the latter half of Golden Week, I've had the feeling that someone is watching me."
"Wha—!?"
Watching you!?
My face stiffened at Hiiragi-san's unexpected revelation. I glanced sideways and saw that Yuji’s face had stiffened just like mine.
"You both know that I have the Presence Detection skill, right?"
"Yeah."
"Ah, right."
"Well, a strange presence started getting caught within its detection range."
According to Hiiragi-san, as soon as the latter half of the Golden Week holidays began, she started feeling a presence monitoring her from outside her family's shop. When she looked for the source, she found it in a coin parking lot on the opposite side of the national highway. The type of car parked there changed depending on the day, but throughout the holiday period, she felt as if different people were taking turns keeping her under constant surveillance from that same spot.
"Does that mean the 'rude people' my gramps mentioned were..."
"Wait, you have an idea too, Yuji?"
Yuji also seemed to have some inkling of the surveillance Hiiragi-san was talking about, and his complexion turned slightly pale.
"Yeah. It wasn't me who felt it, but Juzo-san grumbled about it irritably as we were leaving the event."
"Juzo-san did..."
Seriously... what kind of person is that old man? To be able to detect surveillance directed at him from among a crowd without even having a skill like Hiiragi-san's...
"Kokonoe-kun, didn't you feel anything?"
"No, I didn't..."
When Hiiragi-san asked, I felt the blood drain from my face.
I hadn't even considered the possibility that we were being watched.
"I suspect they’re Association Investigators. It’s hard to imagine it being anything else, given that the surveillance started right after we defeated the area boss."
"The Association...?"
"We submitted the crimson gem, the proof of subjugation for the area boss, for appraisal and purchase, didn't we? That was likely the trigger. Like I said before, there aren't even ten teams currently capable of defeating an area boss. In a situation like that, if a team appears that defeated an area boss with only a small number of people, they’re bound to want to investigate."
Hiiragi-san was likely correct.
If it were a joint team or a corporate team, the Association might simply conclude that they had overwhelmed the boss with numbers. But in our case...
"Have we been flagged as persons of interest?"
"...I wouldn't rule it out."
"Neither would I."
Minors capable of subjugating an area boss with a small team... it’s no wonder they’d want to conduct a background check. From the perspective of public safety officials, they’d want to at least confirm the character of young people who possess such immense power at an age considered mentally immature.
We looked at each other and let out a long, collective sigh.
"Because of that, I'm against increasing the number of people who know about the dungeon for now."
"...I suppose you're right."
"Yeah. In a situation like that, it's definitely not a good idea to bring more people into the loop."
I and Yuji agreed with Hiiragi-san's conclusion, which she had delivered with an exhausted sigh. We couldn't very well justify revealing the dungeon’s existence while we were under surveillance.
That matter would have to be postponed for a while.
Then again, I just realized I forgot to confirm one thing.
"Speaking of which, I forgot to ask—about Mika and Saori joining the party..."
"Oh, right, that was the main topic, wasn't it?"
"You’re right. The other topic was so impactful that I completely forgot."
At my words, Yuji and Hiiragi-san looked startled and shifted their gazes toward me.
"Well, look. As for me, I'm in favor of them joining. If that’s what’s going on with the first-years, I want to help Mika-chan and her friend however I can. Although, I wouldn't recommend leveling them up in the Slime Dungeon..."
"I agree. I have no objection to your sister and her friend joining the party either. But I’m of the same opinion as Hirose-kun—we shouldn't use the Slime Dungeon."
It seemed that while they had no problem with Mika and Saori joining the party, both were against using the Slime Dungeon for leveling. In our current situation, it certainly wasn't a good idea to tell them about it.
I glanced at their faces, but it didn't look like they were going to change their minds about the Slime Dungeon being off-limits. It couldn't be helped.
"...Alright. In exchange, could you both help me with their leveling for a while? If we don't get their levels up to a minimum, they’re going to have a hard time even swinging their weapons around."
"Of course, that's fine."
"Yes, I don't mind either."
At least I managed to push through a compromise. With this, I should be able to prevent Mika and Saori from getting unnecessarily hurt.
I felt a wave of relief that we had successfully reached an agreement and let out a long breath.