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The Darkness Was Comfortable for Me (Web Novel) - Epilogue: The Darkness was Comfortable for me
Epilogue: The Darkness was Comfortable for me
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“Reya, Kuro, I leave that side to you!” (Jeanne)
“Got it! Are you okay, Nanami?” (Hikaru)
“I am okay. I have Ai-chan.” (Nanami)
“I am done over here. I will provide support, Jeanne-san!” (Rifreya)
We are down at the 4th Floor of the Meltia Dungeon.
We are subjugating Scyllas today.
A lot happened after that, but I am still in Meltia.
◇◆◆◆◇
A lot really did happen that day.
There was also my own confusion with how dizzying the changes were in the situation, but a lot happened after coming out from the dungeon too.
There was the Guildmaster of the Explorer Guild, and the high priests of the Water and Earth Church waiting for us -Jeanne and me to be more precise- at the entrance of the dungeon.
The thought of using Dark Spirit Abilities to escape crossed my mind, but the Guildmaster said ‘We won’t do anything bad to you, so please come with us’. When we followed them, we were led to the residence of the feudal lord where a party was held a good while ago for the Demon Lord subjugation.
The ruckus that Ferdinand caused is apparently an ‘incident’ that this city cannot condone. Talk of it would obviously reach the feudal lord too.
We were asked about the circumstances, and told them while hiding the fact that we are otherworlders.
The church said they wanted to take custody of me and Jeanne.
In my case, there’s no doubt they mean making me a meal for the Great Spirits. I felt awed and scared of the church who can just demand something like that with a bare face, but that’s most likely the common sense of these guys.
It was something similar with Jeanne too. Now that it is known she is a Hated One, they apparently ‘can’t ignore her’.
Hated Ones are natural enemies of Great Spirits, and are destined to be culled the moment they are born at the time of their baptism.
That’s why only few Hated Ones reach adulthood. They may or may not exist in places where there’s no baptism practice or there’s no Great Spirit church.
It might be because of this, but the existence of Jeanne is apparently more of an issue for the high priests than me.
Regardless, her fate would be similar to mine if she were to be moved to the church.
I was thinking about escaping even if it meant through force, however, I don’t know if to call it an unexpected ally, but the master of the Explorer Guild and the feudal lord himself extended a hand to us.
Even with our circumstances, Jeanne and I are Gold Rank explorers which only a few tens of them exist in Meltia. Moreover, young and promising. Being able to get to Gold Rank in just a few months doesn’t have much precedence.
The Guildmaster and the feudal lord argued instead, questioning them about how they were trying to get rid of such promising explorers.
They won the noninterference.
We had to be grateful to the guild and the feudal lord regarding this, so we ended up staying at the city for a while more.
According to the count, there’s no feudal lord who would want to reduce the number of promising explorers when there’s a cost for the maintaining a dungeon city.
It may be a calculative way of thinking, but that’s exactly why it can be trusted.
Even if the church is fine, what about the Great Spirits?
They are close to natural phenomena and I doubt they can be reasoned with, but there was no issue here either.
In the first place, it is not like Great Spirits can detect Loved Ones from long distances; 100 meters at most. Even in this situation where the Great Spirits know about my existence, it still goes on the same as always. There’s no issue as long as I don’t approach the churches.
The situation with Ferdinand was an irregular one. The reality was that, until then (aside from the time I entered the range of the Great Fire Spirit) we have had no issues.
Well, it would be better for the church if we were to move somewhere else, but it seems like the guild and the feudal lord are the ones with the higher power. They didn’t get involved with us after that.
It had been decided that we would continue acting in this city, and what bothered us after that was the other Chosen.
After what happened with Ferdinand and Ozawa, there’s the need to be careful of the other Chosen, but Nanami’s ‘Just meet and talk to them then. We are the stronger ones anyways’ was logical, so we met them.
When we actually met them, we realized they were all normal people.
We obviously apologized to the group of 3 we ignored before, but there was that incident with Ferdinand, so they understood.
Origami-san apologized pretty much groveling on the ground.
The viewers apparently got pretty angry at him through the messages.
But those guys were good at disguising themselves, so it can’t be helped.
And with this and that, we were still living in the dungeon city at our mansion.
◇◆◆◆◇
“[Protection]!”
A half transparent shield appeared as the ability activated, and it blocks the tentacle attack of the Scylla.
A newly learned Chaotic Ability. As someone who has low defense and specialized in avoiding, this Spirit Ability that blocks even physical attacks is an extremely reliable new weapon of mine.
Having taken Spirit Energy Up Level 1 was also big.
I don’t lose my breath anymore even when I use Chaotic Abilities consecutively.
Protection is an ability that doesn’t use that much Spirit Energy, so it fits my fighting style of getting close and cutting off the Spirit Vein of my enemy.
“[Darkness Fog]! [Fear]!” (Hikaru)
Darkness surrounds me and I safeguard my body with Protection as I draw close.
I jump the moment the movements of the opponent are dulled with Fear, and sliced off the head of the Scylla.
It is a considerably giant Scylla in overall length, but the upper half is that of a human body, and the position of its Spirit Vein is the same.
As long as you get past the tentacles, this is a monster that you can manage somehow if you deal with the tentacles.
The Scylla died, and the Lamias around were hunted down by Jeanne and the others.
Battle is over.
“Victory! This stage really is fun. And most of all, we earn a lot.” (Jeanne)
“This is not a place you can come that often though… You are all a bit too strong.” (Rifreya)
“Reya, this place is in the very middle. Or more like, it is only one spot. There’s no knowing just how much more there’s left in the dungeon!” (Jeanne)
“Are you seriously aiming to conquer it?” (Rifreya)
“That’s what I have been saying, right? The worries are gone, so we are going as far as we can.” (Jeanne)
Fighting in the Lamia nest is certainly exciting, but it is already beginning to feel too easy.
A Scylla is a giant monster, but it is not that scary as long as you know how to defeat it, and that goes the same for the Lamias.
It is not like I am overestimating our power here, but it should be fine to go to the next floor.
Even so, we came here today to raise the explorer rank of Nanami.
“Good work, everyone. Any injuries?” (Hikaru)
“We are okay. It is thanks to the support of Nanami. Hasn’t she gotten pretty used to it now?” (Jeanne)
“Hmm, I wonder. It still messes up my head a bit though.” (Nanami)
“Nanami-san, you saved me there just now.” (Rifreya)
“Give your thanks to Ai-chan. I am simply asking her after all.” (Nanami)
Nanami has a special skill called Communication.
Ai becoming her comrade was apparently because of that power too. It can tell what the other party is thinking. It feels like a bit of a dangerous power, but she apparently can’t read it unless she expressly tries to. The person herself says she doesn’t use it on humans normally, but I wonder about that. Well, I can’t confirm it anyways, so I have no choice but to believe her.
Anyways, I learned that this power is very beneficial in battle.
You can tell how the enemy is going to move beforehand, so there’s no way it wouldn’t be powerful. According to Nanami, the more honest the movements of the monsters are, the easier it is to tell when they are trying to pull tricks. It is at most stuff like ‘flank them’ or ‘let’s ambush them’, but just being able to tell that makes a difference.
If this were against a human, it would be pretty much a certain kill power.
Thus, Nanami stamping the seal of approval on the 2nd Chosen Group with a ‘these people are okay’, we managed to obtain peace of mind.
Also, Ai is strong. It even uses Chaotic Abilities recently, apparently after seeing me and learning them.
A Monstrosity and a Quasi-Demon Lord. Not only does it fight using Spirit Abilities, its biting attack is also brutal.
The reality is that the Lamias were barely an enemy to it. I would say its strength as a monster would be that of around Floor 6 or 7.
The strength of the Spirit Energy I can feel alone is already more than that of the Scylla.
The reality is that the monsters around Floor 4 won’t even approach just from the mere presence of Ai. No wonder Nanami managed to arrive safely to Meltia.
“Anyways, let’s return to the guild for now. We will submit these stones, and once you get evaluated by a guild staff, you will be a Gold Rank too, Nanami.” (Hikaru)
“Hmm, but Hi-chan, I barely did anything. Will I pass that evaluation? I am still Bronze, you know?” (Nanami)
Nanami certainly was providing assistance with her bow, but it is not like she was proactively participating in battle. Because of her contract with the Great Water Spirit, she can do healing and support, but it might not be on the level of a Gold Rank. If we are talking about skill with Spirit Abilities, the Silver Rank Jojordan is far superior after all.
Explorer parties have ‘healers’ that don’t participate in battle to begin with.
“There should be no issues. I confirmed with the guild before, but in the case you have tamed an animal, the contributions of that animal will also reflect in the evaluation. There’s not that many in Meltia, but it is apparently pretty common for there to be explorers with intelligent animals in other dungeons, you know?” (Jeanne)
“It should be fine then. Ai-chan is the cutest in the world after all.” (Nanami)
“Right. Cute. So fluffy…” (Jeanne)
It seems Jeanne is fine as long as it has fur, she seems to like Ai too.
Even though Ai is visibly a monster at a glance, it has for some reason become like a mascot in the guild.
When Ai enters the guild, the female explorers would come to us even if they had to compete for it, and would feed it Spirit Stones as if they were candies.
In the first place, is this guy safe? -is what I thought, but it is not like there’s no explorers with tamed animals, so they have accepted Nanami’s too.
I myself see Ai as more on the monster side, but it is being pampered by the members of Crimson Vial and Sneeze of the Goddess, and Rifreya doesn’t seem to hate it either.
So strange. Am I the one with the weird vision?
Maybe they really are being brainwashed…?
“They are not being brainwashed. You are simply getting scared in the weirdest of places, Hi-chan. See, it is this cute.” (Nanami)
I was being licked all over by Ai.
Is it cute…? If I had to say whether it is cute, I would say it is…?
I probably can’t feel it is cute because I can sense the massive power it has with my very skin.
◇◆◆◆◇
“T-Then, let’s go back home. Ehe…ehehe.” (Rifreya)
“Reya…you have been grinning the whole time today.” (Jeanne)
“Eeh~, it can’t be helped. Ehe.” (Rifreya)
“Hmm, maybe we really should change the order.” (Nanami)
“E-Eh…?! No way…!” (Rifreya)
“It is a joke. We are already at this point, so a woman doesn’t take back her words.” (Nanami)
After getting out of the dungeon and finishing the report to the guild, Rifreya, Jeanne, and Nanami were talking.
Today is the ‘reservation’ of Rifreya… We are going to be fulfilling the promise of that time.
Nanami spoke about that for some reason and forcefully made me promise.
Excuses didn’t work one bit.
“Hi-chan, this is not Japan anymore, you know? Do you prefer it to be by force? I don’t mind that either… I would like it to be a beautiful memory if possible though.” (Nanami)
The eyes of Nanami when saying this were not smiling.
I already knew the feelings of Nanami, not because I read the album, but because I knew. I won’t go making excuses like she is my childhood friend or something like that.
But I feel like Nanami is someone who is really possessive though…
Nanami must have read those feelings of mine, she began talking quietly.
“Hmm, I wouldn’t want someone with half-assed feelings either, you know? But if they have strong emotions for you to the point where they are fine with putting their life on the line, I thought it is fine. Also…honestly speaking, I am originally the interloper here. I understand properly that I am securing a place for myself here, knowing of your kindness, Hi-chan.” (Nanami)
“Nanami…that’s…” (Hikaru)
“That girl -I am referring to Rifreya-san- even when I came and we began living together, she didn’t hate me or think of me as a nuisance at all. She was glad that you were more energetic now with me here… She seriously thinks that innocently. I got a power like that, so I ended up wanting to know, you see… I seriously hate myself. Even now, that girl is only thinking about you, Hi-chan. Even I wouldn’t be able to pull her apart from you.” (Nanami)
“I see…” (Hikaru)
I myself was thinking I have to consider my future relationship with these girls.
Now that I have become a ‘normal Chosen’, there’s no choice aside from living normally. I need a delineation like that, and most of all, I myself am a normal man in the end.
“Well, Jeanne-san and I plan on being your partners from tomorrow on though. Prepare yourself, okay?” (Nanami)
“Eh? Really?” (Hikaru)
“Isn’t that obvious? Who do you think we are? Right, Jeanne-san, Rifreya-san?” (Nanami)
“I wanted him to assault me, but it can’t be helped.” (Jeanne)
“Ehe ehe, I am looking forward to it, Hikaru♪.” (Rifreya)
The eyes of the girls shone like those of a carnivore and made my body quiver.
◇◆◆◆◇
The darkness was comfortable for me.
In that dungeon where death was at my bosom, I would clad myself in darkness, and simply hold my breath in and curl up.
So that no one would see me.
So I wouldn’t gather the attention of anyone.
So that everyone would forget about me.
I assumed that this world was a shitty world dyed in darkness, and death and ill intentions were the sole truth.
Only when I am embraced by the darkness, melted in the darkness, have become one with it, did I feel reprieve.
That was my truth.
Morning came and I opened the window after crawling out from the bed.
The mornings of the isekai are lively.
It is bustling with people today as well, and they are releasing energy that makes it hard to believe this is early in the morning.
The sun is shining hot and illuminating the world.
Even now, I still feel creeped by the abnormal number of viewers.
But I won’t think darkness alone is comfortable like before.
I learned that I have been helped by everyone and I am here thanks to them.
There’s people who support me.
People who will stay by my side.
People who love me.
The real world was this bright and shiny.
I have been taught this.
I was made to notice this.
And just being here like this makes me this happy.
“Hnn, Hikaru. You are up?”
“Yeah, Rifreya. Good morning.” (Hikaru)
“Ehehe…this is kind of embarrassing, isn’t it?” (Rifreya)
“I am more embarrassed…” (Hikaru)
I tried using Crystals to stop the broadcast and using the manual mode of the camera, but the viewership was only one-sidedly increasing. I decided to drink and forget about it.
According to Nanami, my little sisters would comment about it with glee.
There’s no way I would be able to stay sane if that happened.
But that’s just one end of the world. Just as Jeanne said, it is pretty much like a dream or an illusion at this point.
The dream-like time last night was real, and the thing that was always in front of me, assailing me, was the fantasy.
“Rifreya, I am looking forward to working with you from here on.” (Hikaru)
“Eh, what’s that all of a sudden? I am the one who will be under your care for the long years to come. Ehe.” (Rifreya)
Rifreya, whose face has been loose since yesterday, directed a melting smile at me.
The platinum blonde hair basked in the light of the morning, and that light trailed down all the way to her shoulders as it vanished.
(Beautiful… She is so truly beautiful.) (Hikaru)
Even though I have seen Rifreya countless times already, I feel beauty from her like that day…the first time I saw her. I don’t know if I just feel this way because I embraced her, or because of a change in my mental state.
But what’s in front of my eyes is reality.
—It is still early, so it might be fine to stay in the room like this for a while longer.
I opened the Status Board and pushed the stop broadcast button.
——
Author: Thank you very much for reading.
