The day after I found something completely unexpected during the site visit, I woke up in my own bed just like any other day. I was relieved that I hadn't been detained by the Dungeon Association under the guise of an "interrogation for dungeon discoverers." Given the nature of what we’d found, there was a non-zero chance they might have held us temporarily for the sake of information security. Even if Uwajima-san and his team hadn't said it outright, that inflated appraisal sheet served as a tacit non-disclosure agreement.
Considering the current state of the industry, it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that some dungeon-related company might aim to corner the market on specific drop items. Even if the dungeon itself fell under state management, a company could buy up the surrounding land as private property and refuse entry to others. Even if the initial costs ran into the billions, they could easily turn a profit within a few years.
"It's morning already..."
The dungeon we found was located deep in the mountains, in what could only be described as a remote, unexplored region. Even if someone bought up the land around it and declared it off-limits, the chances of anyone complaining were extremely low. If a dungeon-related company wanted to operate a quasi-governmental dungeon in secret, this location was as convenient as it got. It wouldn't be strange at all if the Association schemed to keep information about such a site hidden until they finished the minimum preparations for its public release.
Of course, I had no desire to know what kind of shady political tug-of-war was happening behind the scenes.
"Time to head down..."
I gave myself a long stretch to loosen up my body, then wiped my sleepy eyes and walked out of my room with heavy steps. My heart felt a bit weighed down after everything that had happened, but my school schedule was fixed, so I couldn't afford to lounge around. After washing away the lingering drowsiness at the sink, I opened the living room door and gave a lethargic greeting.
"Morning..."
"Morning, Daiki. You look like you haven't quite recovered yet."
"Well, yeah. A lot happened yesterday, so I'm a bit mentally drained."
"...Well, you did say you found something troublesome and had a hard time dealing with the aftermath. I suppose that's to be expected."
"Haha."
I brushed off Mom's question with a small wave of my hand and sat down in my usual chair. Only Dad was at the table; Mom was busy preparing breakfast, and Mika hadn't shown her face yet. Had she overslept?
As a side note, I hadn't told Mom or the others that we discovered a new dungeon yesterday. Even with family, I had to maintain strict confidentiality; you never knew how or where information might leak. Especially since hush money in the form of an inflated appraisal sheet was involved this time, I had to be careful until that dungeon was officially announced.
"Morning, Dad."
"Ah, morning. It sounded like you had a rough time yesterday."
When I greeted Dad, he looked up from his newspaper and returned the greeting. I had only given him a vague explanation that yesterday's events were related to explorer business, so Dad—being an outsider to the industry—looked a bit concerned.
"Yeah, something like that."
"If you're in any trouble, come talk to me immediately. I might not be much help with explorer matters, but I'll give you whatever advice I can as a father."
"Yeah, thanks. But I think I'm okay for now. Most of the cleanup we had to do ended yesterday. At most, they might just ask for the discovery story again."
"I see. Well, as long as it hasn't turned into a mess, that's for the best."
When I told him I didn't think it would become a problem, Dad looked slightly relieved before turning his attention back to his newspaper. It pained me a little that I couldn't give him the details despite his genuine concern.
As Mom began setting out the breakfast plates, the living room door swung open and an energetic voice rang out.
"Morning!"
"Morning."
"Morning, Mika."
"You're late, Mika. Come on, sit down so we can eat."
"Okay!"
Once Mika sat down, Mom finished setting the table and joined us. With everyone gathered, we began the meal.
"Thanks for the food."
Today's breakfast was traditional Japanese: white rice, radish miso soup, saikyo-yaki white fish, and cold tofu. We chatted about our lives as we ate.
"That reminds me, your school festival is at the end of this month, isn't it? How are the preparations coming along?" Dad asked.
"Good! Prep is hard, but it's basically a festival, so I'm looking forward to it."
"Yeah, yeah! Especially since I have two things to do this time—one for class and one for my club—it's super busy!"
"Mika, stop that! You just splashed soup over here!"
Mika started explaining just how difficult her preparations were with wide gestures, but since she was still holding her chopsticks, drops of miso soup flew off the tips. Mom scolded her for her bad manners, and Mika slumped down, looking sheepish. I understood she wanted to vent about her hard work, but she really needed to settle down.
"Sounds like Mika is going to have quite the fulfilling festival," Dad noted. "Are things okay on your end, Daiki?"
"Yeah. It's my second time, so everyone mostly knows the ropes. Though people are getting pretty hyped up because it's a festival, so the mental strain never really ends."
"I see. By the way, what are your classes doing for their exhibits?"
"Our class decided to do a cafe. Though it's just a simple one where we serve drinks and commercial snacks."
The decision had been made just the other day. When we asked for opinions during homeroom, the majority wanted something that wouldn't take much effort to prepare, so we settled on a pseudo-cafe. The specific reason they supported it was that they wanted to spend their after-school time on explorer activities in dungeons. For cultural clubs that were required to present the results of their activities, it was one thing, but for a class exhibit where we just needed to provide a token effort, they wanted to minimize the labor as much as possible. Our class had a lot of Going Home Club members, after all.
Because of that, the hospitality "costumes" were just aprons over our uniforms, the drinks were just bottled beverages poured into cups, and the snacks were pre-made products we’d simply slice up. Since it was a low-effort cafe with no particular star attraction, they figured we wouldn't get many customers, which made it easier. Their motivation and proactivity were both essentially zero.
"I see. Well, everyone has their own way of enjoying an event," Dad said with a smile.
"True. The class stuff won't take much effort, so I'll put my energy into the club exhibit instead."
"You only get three chances at this in high school. Give it your best shot."
"I will."
As Dad said, everyone had their own way of enjoying it. I didn't have the drive to "definitely take first place in the popularity poll" either. My plan was to enjoy the festival at a moderate pace while working to make sure the club exhibit was a success.
Well, as for the club exhibit, Mika and the others were putting a lot of heart into it, so I figured we’d be fine if we kept going at this rate... Wait. If that was the case, what exactly was I supposed to be working hard on for the festival?
After finishing breakfast, Mika and I saw Dad off as he left for work, then returned to our rooms to finish getting ready for school. I checked my uniform in the mirror to make sure nothing was disheveled, grabbed my school bag, and glanced around the room before leaving. My gaze stopped at the desk drawer.
"I really need to decide what to do with this thing soon..."
Through the report of this new dungeon discovery, I had been able to confirm, at least to some extent, how the Dungeon Association handles things when a site is found. I hadn't confirmed the administrative procedures yet, but I planned to ask Kiritani-san or Yuta-san about that once things settled down. Since we were the ones who reported the discovery, it wouldn't be strange for us to ask what the process looked like for future reference.
If I ever ended up handing over this Drawer Dungeon, I wanted to use that information to make sure things went as smoothly as possible. I especially wanted to know if there were any legal penalties for concealing a dungeon without reporting it. My response would change depending on that.
"I'll check with Yuta-san and the others, and then wait and see for a bit longer until this current business is over. If I move around too much right now, I'll stand out too much as the discoverer of a new dungeon."
But if I started contacting Kiritani-san and the others now to investigate dungeon-related laws, there was a risk they'd suspect me of trying to monopolize the dungeon we had just found. Our achievements were already far beyond those of typical student explorers. We were already in the position of scouting the land around that dungeon to see if we should buy it; from a financial perspective, they might judge that we had the capital to buy up the surrounding land at current prices. There was a chance that vested interests regarding the dungeon's post-release rights had already formed, so if student explorers like us meddled poorly, we might get burned. It might be over-caution, but a dungeon was valuable enough to warrant that kind of wariness.
Therefore, it would probably be dangerous for us to contact Kiritani-san and the others until things had settled down—specifically, until after the land rights had been transferred. I wanted to believe that once the rights were transferred, they would judge that we weren't trying to join the scramble for interests.
"...Alright, time for school."
I gave my head a little shake to clear away the idle thoughts and left the room.
When I went downstairs, Mika had already finished her preparations and was watching TV.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. You're fast today, Mika. Shall we go? It's a bit earlier than usual, but let's head out."
"Yeah... It's only a few minutes early, but let's go."
"Alright. Mom, Mika and I are leaving now."
"Oh, you're going already? That's early. Be careful."
Mika stood up and headed to the entrance with me.
"That's right, Mom. I might be late because of festival prep," I added.
"Ah, me too," Mika said.
"Yes, yes. Just make sure you're careful on your way home."
"We're off!"
After saying goodbye to Mom, Mika and I stepped out the front door.
Because we left early, the population density on the school route was lower than usual. I took a quick look around, but I didn't see anyone I knew. Usually, I'd run into one of our club members on the way, but it looked like I wouldn't be seeing anyone today.
"Hey, Onii-chan. There's something I wanted to ask."
"Hm? What is it?"
Maybe she was bored since we hadn't run into anyone, but Mika spoke to me with a slightly suspicious look on her face.
"Yesterday, you guys went to scout the candidate site for the training ground, right?"
"Yeah, through an introduction from a real estate agent who knows Juzo-san. What about it? You've known we've been going there for a while, haven't you?"
"Yeah. But you said you found something troublesome there. What exactly did you find? For you guys, even if a wild animal—like a bear—showed up, you wouldn't call it 'troublesome,' right? And your explanation to Mom and Dad was really vague."
I worried about how to answer Mika's interrogation, scratching the back of my head as I thought. I was technically under a non-disclosure agreement, so I couldn't tell her the fact that we had discovered a new dungeon. I could just say something random to brush her off, but it would be a problem if she started poking around. So, I decided to tell her only what I could to deter her.
"Don't tell anyone. And don't dig any deeper."
"...Okay."
"It's something so troublesome that all three of us who went to the site visit were told to keep quiet. I might be able to tell you what happened someday, but right now, I can't say a word."
"...Ugh. Sorry, Onii-chan. I won't ask anything else."
Hearing my answer, Mika made a face that said she wished she hadn't asked, her expression twisting in distaste. I hadn't said anything specific, but she seemed to have grasped the gravity of the situation—that it was something involving all three of us being told to keep quiet. She desperately suppressed her twitching cheeks and apologized, promising not to pursue it further.
"I'd appreciate that. Well, when I'm able to talk about it, I'll tell you what happened."
"...Yeah, I'll look forward to it. If I remember."
For a while after that, Mika walked silently beside me with an awkward expression. Letting her go to school in this state was a bit problematic, so I struck up a conversation to change the mood.
"By the way, Mika, what's your class doing for the school festival?"
"Eh? Wait, didn't I tell you?"
"Hm? When I asked the other day, didn't you say you hadn't reached a consensus yet?"
"Oh? Ah, now that you mention it, I don't think I told you directly..."
When I listened to her, she remembered talking to Hiiragi-san about it while they were working on their exhibits together. If that was the case, Yuji might have heard about it from Hino-san and the others too.
Does that mean... I'm the only one in our club who didn't know about Mika's class exhibit?
...Wow, seriously?
After seeing Mika's expression, which was now awkward in a different sense than before, I covered my face with my right hand and looked up at the sky. From now on, I really needed to try to communicate a bit more proactively.