The Support Ate it All

It looked like [Hummingbird] might come flying at him any second, so Shin Byeongcheol hurriedly backed off and waved both hands.

“Hey, hey, let’s talk this out. This habit of yours where you just start by throwing lightning around? Not a good one.”

“That’s if you cooperate willingly.”

“Okay, okay. Fine. So what do you want to know?”

Even as he asked, Shin Byeongcheol let out a long sigh inside.

Damn it. No wonder I had a bad feeling.

He should have followed his instincts like he usually did.

Instead, he had ignored them and pushed ahead, and of course this was the result.

Still, regret was always late.

What mattered now was figuring out how to deal with this.

I have to contain this on my end, no matter what.

Getting caught himself was one thing.

Dragging Kim Ho’s group into it was something he had to avoid.

That would be a huge problem both commercially and morally.

If he couldn’t even properly handle something as relatively simple as guiding people through the underground floors, how could anyone trust him with more work later?

So Shin Byeongcheol made up his mind.

I’m going with the full denial strategy.

And he was even going to use his trump card.

He really hadn’t wanted to.

But at this point, it seemed like the only way out.

Then Song Cheonhye’s question came.

“Who were you on your way to pick up?”

“Pick up?”

“Didn’t you just say you’d cooperate?”

“I am cooperating.”

Shin Byeongcheol shot back shamelessly, pretending not to understand.

Song Cheonhye narrowed her eyes and pressed harder.

“You were trying to go in there alone? A C-rank dungeon?”

“Huh? What C-rank? This is Floor D.”

“I know perfectly well you were trying to cross into Floor C. Do you think I’m stupid?”

ZZZT.

Sparks jumped from Song Cheonhye’s body, and Shin Byeongcheol took another step back, waving his hands again.

“I’m telling you, quit threatening people with electricity.”

“Why don’t you answer the question properly instead? You’re not even qualified for Floor D in the first place.”

“No, I mean, you can come down here without necessarily entering anything, can’t you?”

“And you think that counts as an excuse right now?”

“It’s not an excuse, it’s—”

SPLAT.

At that moment, some strange sound came from somewhere, and Shin Byeongcheol cut himself off mid-sentence.

Then he looked around and asked,

“...Hey. Did you hear that just now?”

“I told you to stop changing the subject.”

“I’m not changing the subject. I’m serious. Did you hear it?”

“What sound?”

“Uh... something like water spilling? No, a little thicker than that.”

“What are you even talking about?”

Song Cheonhye frowned.

He had suddenly started rambling like he had taken [T.E.B - 001], so of course it sounded ridiculous.

At this point, it seemed like enough talking.

She should probably just take him by force.

But then—

SPLAT.

This time, even Song Cheonhye caught it faintly.

A sound she felt like she had heard not long ago.

Like liquid dripping somewhere, or something sticking to something else.

Shin Byeongcheol asked again,

“...You heard it that time, right?”

“...Yeah.”

“What the hell is it?”

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t sound normal.”

“I don’t think this is the time to stand around like this.”

“No. This is exactly the time to stand around like this.”

Song Cheonhye answered in a firm tone.

Like hell she was going to let him slide past this.

Weird sound or not, caught was caught.

She let the current around her flare up threateningly and pressed him one last time.

“This is your last chance. Choose. Tell me everything willingly, or come with me to the truth room.”

“I really did just come down here to look around.”

“Understood. Then let’s go to the truth room.”

“No, seriously, why are you trying to drag a person off like that?”

That was when the two of them were still bickering.

RUMBLE—

A sound effect more familiar than anything accompanied the rising wooden door.

And from beyond it, Gwak Seungjae stepped out.

Finally.

Shin Byeongcheol’s “trump card” was this.

Originally, he was only supposed to call for help if other clubs threatened him over T.E.B.

But given the situation, he had decided to break that agreement.

At the very least, they’ll be easier to talk to than Miss Song.

They also seemed to have some kind of cooperative relationship with Kim Ho.

If he explained the situation properly, they would probably help.

Of course, he would have to pay an appropriate price for that.

But that was a problem for future CEO SHIN.

“......”

A strange light flickered in Gwak Seungjae’s eyes.

They had come expecting to find Shin Byeongcheol surrounded by or confronting clubs.

Instead, Song Cheonhye was here.

Even so, Gwak Seungjae was quick on the uptake and sharp enough to read the situation.

They grasped everything instantly, then exchanged glances with Shin Byeongcheol.

Am I right about what I’m thinking?

Yes, exactly right. Please save me.

Of course, Song Cheonhye had no idea what was going on beneath the surface.

She asked in mild surprise,

“How did you know to come here?”

“I sensed a disturbance and came down to check.”

“Ah...!”

“What’s going on?”

Gwak Seungjae asked as if they knew nothing.

So Song Cheonhye laid out everything that had happened just now, along with the conversation they had had.

Naturally, all of it was within expectations.

Except for the sound of the unidentified liquid.

So Gwak Seungjae nodded once and gave an order.

“I’ll take custody of him.”

“Yes, understood.”

“Inform the faculty about the sound. Then return to your post.”

At that, Song Cheonhye gave a crisp nod, flashed Shin Byeongcheol a triumphant smile, and left.

Though which one of them would really be smiling in the end remained to be seen.

Soon after, Gwak Seungjae shut the wooden door and quietly began chanting under their breath.

When the door opened again, some place outside the dungeon building could be seen beyond it.

It meant they wanted to hear the story somewhere quiet, so Shin Byeongcheol obediently followed.

And the first thing he did was bow his head.

“Thank you.”

“Now fill in the missing parts.”

“Yes, sir.”

He had kept stalling and hiding things from Song Cheonhye to the very end, but he couldn’t do that with Gwak Seungjae too.

So he confessed the “missing part,” namely that he had been acting as guide for Kim Ho and Hong Yeonhwa.

Gwak Seungjae merely jerked their chin like it was no big deal.

“If it hadn’t been him, you wouldn’t have dared call me.”

“That’s right.”

If he had gotten caught while guiding some other student, Shin Byeongcheol would have chosen to take the demerits instead.

And from Gwak Seungjae’s standpoint, there would have been no reason to do a favor for some random student either.

If it hadn’t been Kim Ho, they might actually have dumped the whole thing on him instead.

“I’ll keep this matter quiet. I won’t demand anything further from Kim Ho, but make sure to leave him a word.”

“Ah, yes. Of course.”

“And the debt between you and me is separate.”

“That’s only fair too. I’ll repay you later, one way or another.”

Honestly, it might have been cheaper to just take the demerits and disciplinary action.

But Shin Byeongcheol judged that this whole mess was entirely his fault.

So even if it cost him more, he intended to take responsibility for it alone.

Maybe Gwak Seungjae had guessed as much.

They looked at him with renewed interest.

“At least you know how to keep faith. Maybe that’s why he values you.”

“Hehe, thanks for thinking well of me.”

“That’s enough. Go.”

RUMBLE—

Then Gwak Seungjae summoned the wooden door again and personally dropped Shin Byeongcheol off in front of the C-rank dungeon.

Shin Byeongcheol bowed a full ninety degrees as they saw him off, thinking,

...Damn, the service here is solid.

*****

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Fireballs poured down like a storm.

Frozen bears, deer, squirrels—it didn’t matter what kind they were.

Everything caught in it was erased equally.

The lumberjack golem’s logging resumed, and by now the witch had already sent the frozen woodland friends several times to interfere with us.

She had even increased their numbers and mixed in stronger elites.

Of course, the result never changed.

FWOOOOSH—

As the whole area blazed with fire, the witch’s avatar glared at us with sunken eyes.

I tossed a casual comment her way.

“Are you really going to keep wasting them like this? It’s not like your freezer’s infinite.”

“...I suppose I have no choice but to admit it. You’re stronger than I expected.”

“A little late, but better late than never. Love to see it.”

“I shall grant your wish.”

Meaning, she was going to come back with her real body.

And the rest of her forces too.

I nodded in satisfaction.

“That’d be great, actually. The way you keep poking at us has been getting annoying.”

“......”

The witch’s avatar was made of blizzard, so I couldn’t actually read an expression off it.

Still, I had a feeling thick veins had probably bulged across the real witch’s forehead.

In a voice that sounded like she was forcing down her rage, she left one final line.

“...We’ll be seeing °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° each other again very soon.”

“Oh, absolutely. We’ll be waiting. Watch your step on the snow on your way over.”

“......”

Then she melted away and vanished.

Watching that happen, Hong Yeonhwa asked,

“Is the next one the boss fight?”

“Yeah.”

And once we took down the witch, that was basically the end of every real threat in the dungeon.

Someone might ask a perfectly reasonable question here.

Then doesn’t that mean the dungeon is basically cleared?If you want to farm as many materials as possible, wouldn’t it be better to drag things out?But this place had different clear conditions from ordinary dungeons.

The main objective here was [Escort].

I looked at the lumberjack golem, still hard at work swinging its axe.

CRUNCH, CRUNCH!

That thing has to finish its job.

And that job was storing up a certain amount of lumber.

Until then, it didn’t matter if we killed the boss or turned the whole place upside down.

The dungeon wouldn’t clear.

Then had there really been any reason for me to keep running my mouth and deliberately provoke the witch into bringing out the real body?

Sure. Because it makes things easier if we kill her early.

Wouldn’t it be better to get rid of her up front and mine everything in one go, instead of repeating fight, gather, fight, gather over and over?

CRUNCH, CRUNCH!

After several swings, a thick tree finally gave way with a heavy crack.

The golem loaded it onto the giant cart and moved on.

So we melted the snow ahead of it with fire magic, opened a path, and guided it toward the higher-grade trees as much as possible.

Then, while we were moving toward the next location—

“......”

Hong Yeonhwa kept sneaking glances at me from the side.

She seemed to think she was being subtle, but it was incredibly obvious.

She was still terrible at hiding things.

“......”

Hong Yeonhwa hesitated for a long time, going back and forth over whether to say it or not.

Then, like she had finally made up her mind, she put some determination into her eyes.

A moment later, she trotted over, took up a spot beside me, and matched her steps to mine.

With I want something from you written all over her face.

“......”

“What?”

“It’s a little...? Cold, maybe...?”

“What is?”

“Well... um... your hand...?”

In other words, she wanted to use the cold weather as an excuse to hold my hand.

That made me want to tease her, and I was feeling a little mean too, so I deliberately acted like I had no idea what she meant.

“Wouldn’t it be better to light a fire?”

“...Ah.”

“That’d be way warmer than my hand.”

“Right... um... right...?”

Hong Yeonhwa added that like she had just realized, Wow, I really said something stupid.

Then she visibly drooped and cast a spell.

FWOOSH.

A flame no bigger than a match floated up into the air.

And she just stared at it forlornly.

That felt like enough bullying for one day, so I finally threw her a line.

“Give me your hand.”

“...!”

Hong Yeonhwa’s face brightened instantly, like she had never been dejected at all.

Then she took my hand, and we walked together through the snow.