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Volume 12 Chapter 2 Part 8

If I tried it, maybe I legitimately could be able to twist a baby’s arm without much difficulty?

That is actually a sad piece of news, because I didn’t mean it in a literal sense.

「It’s not good to grow stronger, but I think it’s true that it’s definitely easier.」

Sherry’s cold-blooded opinion torments me. I certainly felt like I had a good time.

「Let’s do it, desu!」

「I think that we are going to be all right.」

「I am sure that it might be fun indeed.」

In Rutina’s case, she’s definitely used to it by now, and I’m not going to argue with her, since I am a man who can always read the atmosphere in the room.

「Uh, umu. But you know, now that I am not wearing a sacrificial Misanga, so I would be in trouble if anything happened to me right now, which is why I still want you to be extra careful.」

That’s right. I don’t have a Sacrificial Misanga on me right now.

After all, we shouldn’t shut ourselves up here in the 44th floor.

「is that so?」
You look dissatisfied, Roxanne. Didn’t you say that it’s a shame not to be able to protect your master? Where did that feeling of yours go? Do you still have it in you? No. Has it really been there at all?
「Umu「
「I don’t think there’s any chance that a monster from the 45th floor could harm or kill master.」

And I want you to understand that once something happens, it’s going to be too late to fix it.

Does that mean that there is no value at all in protecting them from the monsters of the 45th floor?

「Well, we should be able to get our hands on the Caterpillar Skill Crystal soon. Until then, we should gradually increase the amount of battles that we’re going to be fighting on the 45th floor little by little.」

Somehow, I feel like I’m being forced to compromise here.

「I see. Then we’re going to go up to a higher floor.」

No. I didn’t say anything about going up. We are staying on the 45th floor, you hear me? 45th floor and 45th floor only!

「It’s a matter of judging the situation correctly when the time comes.」

「Yes. Of course, judging the situation correctly.」

I don’t want to refer to the opinions of those who tend to think that all of our victories are easy ones no matter what the situation is.

「Then, shall we return to the 44th floor?」

「No. It looks like a good group of monsters has sprung up nearby, so let’s go defeat them at once.」

Oi, what do you think you’re doing, Roxanne? Don’t just go deciding whether or not we’re going to be defeating something or not on your own, okay?!

But before I could force her to give me a reply, Roxanne was already advancing forward while completely ignoring me.

I thought I told you that we needed to be careful. Or have you already forgotten all about that?

Is this decision to exterminate the monsters whenever they spring up your idea of fighting while being cautious? Because it surely doesn’t look that way.

Damn it, words really are difficult. No matter what I’ll try to say, it looks like I am never going to be able to reach Roxanne with them.

Anyway, this is what happened afterwards.
When I reluctantly followed after Roxanne, she brought us to a group of four monsters.

Well, thank God for it being such a small one.

「I did it, desu!」

We took care of the entire group by having me pile up Spell upon Spell of AoE magic against the opponents, who were then finished by Miria turning them to stone with a single slash of her sword.

「As I thought, we won’t have any problems fighting the monsters if they are in a group of just four. The only scenario in which we could have trouble with them would be if several such groups were to overlap with one another. But as long as my master continues to use his powerful magic, then something like that is very unlikely to happen. It also helps that Rutina is with us now as well.」

No Roxanne. If you think about it, then even four enemies at once is plenty enough.

Well, I do understand where you’re coming from though, because four enemies might not be enough for a proper battle…

Oh no. Have I been poisoned by Roxanne’s battle-oriented mindset as well? I must’ve been poisoned by her, because just now I unconsciously thought that four enemies was not enough for us!

「Then, shall we go to the 44th floor now?」

「Yes, let’s go.」

This time Roxanne accepted my suggestion without any hesitation.

After that, we repeated the cycle of having a Floor Boss battle on the 44th floor and a single battle on the 45th floor.

Huh? What do you mean by me being too careful about this? The least I can do to be careful enough here is to not advance to the Floor Boss battle on the 45th floor.

We continued to fight in such a manner all day today and throughout the early morning of the next day.

「The duke of Hartz wanted to see me, so I will go meet with him now.」

After we finished eating breakfast, I decided to answer the call of the Duke of Hartz and go meet with him like he wanted me to do in the message I got from Luke.
「Of course. Have a safe trip then, master.」

「The Duke said that it is okay for me to come visit him alone, but do you want to come with me as well, Rutina?」

「No. For me, that man is my father’s sworn enemy, so I do not wish to see him.」

「Are you sure?」

I tried to reach out to Rutina, but it seems that no matter what I’m going to say to her she’s going to insist on not going there with me, so in the end I warped to Bode alone.

「The Duke is in his office at the back.」

I passed through the castle’s lobby while receiving the usual sloppy response.

I wonder if anything is alright in here?

Rutina said that the Duke is the sworn enemy of her father, but that shouldn’t have anything to do with me personally.

Anyway, I went to the front of the Duke’s office and knocked on the door.
「Who goes there?」

「It’s Michio.」

「Oh, Lord Michio. It’s good to see you.」

I listened to Gozer’s orders and went inside. It’s a relief to know that Gozer is here as well. With him present, it is less likely that the Duke of Hartz is going to be making more unreasonable demands of me.

「You can sit down if you want.」

「Okay.」

「Well then, I will be on my way.」

I sat down on the sofa as advised by the Duke, all the while Gozer tried to leave the office as fast as possible.

Are you really going to peace the fuck out and leave me here, man?

「Are you sure you are not going to stay here, Gozer?」

「No, my Lord, I…」

「I said: are you sure about that?」

The Duke stops Gozer form leaving, and rather forcefully at that. I wonder if I have just gotten myself involved in something truly dangerous if even Gozer didn’t want to have anything to do with that and just tried to run away as soon as I arrived?

「It’s about Lady Cassandra, right? In that case, you know that I am not good at dealing with her.」

Looks like I’ve stumbled onto some prime shitshow after all, since from the conversation between the two I could tell that whoever that person the Duke talked about was, Gozer really disliked her.

If that is how it’s going to be, then I want to leave this place right this instant as well.

「Then maybe I should excuse myself as well…」

「No, no, Lord Michio. Since you already went through the trouble of coming here today, then it would be rude to not even inform you about what is going on in here right now.」

「I think you should stay and listen to the explanation as well, Lord Michio.」

I was trying to leave the office, but both Gozer and the Duke insisted that I should stay and listen to what the Duke had to tell me, even though Gozer was trying to escape the office himself literally moments ago.