Pre-Dungeon Battle Party

It’s finally the day before the Dungeon Battle.

The preparatory phase has been going pretty well with a few things happening here and there, so let’s say that the adventurers are well enough accustomed to the rabbit dungeon.

By the way, the reason there isn’t much else for me to talk about is because I was spending most of the preparatory phase sightseeing around the Imperial Capital. Yeah, so I’ve been using the heck out of Teleport. Convenience is king. The magical power it needs hasn’t been an issue either since it recovers quickly enough.

So, what were we up to now? We were having a motivational party hosted by Haku-san.

This time, the dungeon’s mainly Orange’s, so it wasn’t hosted at Haku-san’s villa, but was rather in the form of catering at Rabbit Paradise. Due to that, Aidi, Orange and everyone was able to join as well.

By the way, Haku-san was openly sponsoring this, so it felt like some kind of midnight launch event. It was so much fun I decided to bust out some sparkling wine to drink.

“Honestly, whether you win or lose this, it’s alright.”

—is what she said. Yeah, now that everything was prepared, there wasn’t much else left to say. Rather, it’d be going too far if theyOrange expected anything else after getting so much help after finding themselves in a pinch.

Given that, as Haku-san said, either way was fine. In the event we did end up losing, the one to lose out the most was Haku-san at 100,000 DP. For Haku-san, that was barely pocket change.

Oh, there was still around 70,000 DP left of that. 10,000 DP of it was for the Create Golem Scroll we traded for the Summon Skeleton Scroll… Everything left unused would be ours, win or lose.

“Hey, Rokuko. You’re really not going to fight in the Dungeon Battle? I’ll have a monopoly on them if you don’t though, you know?”

“Nope. Rather, a monopoly on them would be a bit much. It is a Dungeon Battle.”

“Right. I’ll leave the leftovers to you to clean up then, Rokuko. Whichever of us kills more wins.”

“Aidi, you really love contests don’t you. I’ll pass though. It’s better for me to stay in the back. I’m the general, after all!”

“Rokuko, commanders are people who go out and lead from the front, you know? That’s common sense.”

“It’s just that your way of thinking is too narrow, Aidi. The generals of tomorrow leading from the rear will be the Trend!”

“… Rokuko… you sometimes talk in a different language. Is it another world’s?” 1

“Yep!”

There were even a few conversations like that going on.

Having spent the preparatory period with Aidi, I’d come to understand Aidi’s temperament a lot better.

To put it simply, she was a meathead. She wasn’t a bad kid though. Nope.

She was just a duel troll.

“Hey Kehma, aren’t kyuu gonna eat?”

The orange rabbit named Orange ran over to me on the table top.

“Oh, Orange? You’re eating too?”

“Nkyuu! Kyourse! Tomorrow’s the Dungeon Battle, so I’m eating a ton to do my best! Here, eat some salad!”

With that, Orange used his rabbit paws to grab the salad tongs to serve me salad on my plate. It was filled with carrots and lacked any onions since it was meant for the rabbits.

“Meat’s not a problem since the salad’s for us!”

“Yeah, Haku-san even took that into account. How very like her.”

“Nkyuu… hey! That’s a soup, don’t play in it!”

“Eeeh?”

“It’s not a yellow pool?”

“Ooh so it’s soup!”

It was nice that Orange’s horned rabbit friends were here too, but they were playing in the food. Hmm… maybe they didn’t know food shouldn’t be played in…? Eh, it’s fine.

Meanwhile, Meat was nomming her way through piles of meat and Ichika was eating whatever Ichika tended to eat. Unlike last time, they could bring back whatever they wanted since we have the gigantic Tupperware container named Storage.

… Ah, looks like Haku-san’s coming my way. The super-smile on her face was scary. Jiggle jiggle, I’m not a bad Dungeon Master~! 2

“Kehma-san.”

“… Yes, what is it, Haku-san?”

“Fufu, you don’t have to be so on guard. So, what do you think are the chances of winning tomorrow?”

“Hmm, well… I’d say around fifty percent since I don’t know much about our opponent.”

“Oh? Kehma-san, I thought you’d say something more bold, like ninety percent.”

“Hahaha, you overestimating me. Though I think we do have a good chance of winning since we’ll be able to use the hero, too.”

Yeah, Wataru was already in the rabbit dungeon and would be there for the following day’s Dungeon Battle.

All the rabbits today were snuggling up with and darting around among the adventurers there so there was no doubt about that. They were all pointing at the various rabbits vowing they would protect them forever, so let’s have them uphold those vows in the Dungeon Battle.

“Well, the reason you were throwing the hero at them was for your original goal of Frustrating Them, so I’ll definitely get that done. So that should be fine… I suppose I can say?”

“Fufufu. I believe that Core No. 6 will likely be viewing their side, he’ll certainly be surprised. You can count Core No. 666 as your strength, so make sure to make this a victory. You’ve thought of an amazing gimmick like you did against me, right? Kehma-san, I’m looking forward to your ideas—no, I’ve been looking forward to your ideas for a long time.”

Even if she was expecting so much, I hadn’t prepared too amazing of a gimmick… please don’t raise the hurdle so high.

“… Well, I don’t plan on losing. It does feel like I’m experimenting with a strategy that I’ve been thinking about using though.”

“Fufufu, that’s exactly it, Kehma-san. Right… I’ll reward you with something if you win this fight. How about information on Godly Beddings? It will be information that you don’t already know, of course.”

“… Well, I definitely don’t plan on losing.”

I’ll definitely try. Yep. It doesn’t change what I was already going to do.

“Haku Ane-sama! I want a reward if Kehma wins too!”

“Oh? Then I want a reward too, in that case.”

Hearing talks about a reward, Rokuko and Aidi interrupted. What greedy people.

“Hmm… I’ll prepare something under my authority. If you win, of course.”

“Yay! You gotta win, Kehma!”

“Fufu, can you even lose with me here? If so, it’ll be because of faulty orders. Give me good directions, Rokuko’s Master.”

Man oh man. Either way, it’s good they’re fired up, at least.

…

But now that I think about it, why am I getting a bad feeling about this reward?

I hope it’s just my imagination.