Sevens Volume 9 Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – Beim’s Baptism

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「W-what’s this?」

──Erhart’s face was twitching. He was watching the adventurers who were going to challenge Beim’s dungeon.

Several parties were participating in the dungeon expedition that was spearheaded by Beim’s adventurer guild.

It had such a large scale that even just the number of the logistical support was more than 3000 people.

A large gate was built at the dungeon’s entrance. The soldiers that were protecting Beim’s city were strictly guarding it.

His friends’ faces were also twitching.

「E-even our village doesn’t has this many people even if we gathered everyone.」

「Oi, the guys over there are all wearing full plate.」

「What the hell with this number?」

There were adventurers that dressed like a knight order, and there  were also people with appearance so overflowing with wildness they could  be mistaken as bandit.

There was an adventurer equipped with full plate armor while an  adventurer wearing fur and carrying an axe was standing beside him.

The group had no sense of unity at all, but all the adventurers here had proper equipments.

Erhart felt that the great sword on his back was seedy compared to them.

A guild staff approached the dumbfounded Erhart and his friends.

「Are you guys the party who will take the test? Your name is──what a  messy handwriting. These letters, is your party called Griffon Cavalry?」

「That’s right.」

The adventurers around them laughed when Erhart answered so.

One of them was a young man with orange colored hair that was short  but quirky. It seemed that he was a leader of a group with uniform light  equipments.

Although they were equipped lightly, various tools were hanging from  their belt. Their equipments were more complete than Erhart’s group.

「Griffon Cavalryyy? I’m not seeing any griffon here. I can’t even see any horse.」

Erhart glared at the laughing man.

「You bastard, do you want to say something to us huh!」

The man raised his hands in a surrendering gesture.

「Oops, my apologies. I didn’t have enough sleep yesterday, but thanks  to you guys making me laugh, my sleepiness is blown away now. My name  is Albano(アルバーノ). I’m leading these guys.」

The young man laughed flippantly. He looked a bit older than Erhart’s group.

He looked frivolous, but he had a trained body and his weapon was also maintained well.

Erhart was about to throw himself at that Albano, but a man wearing full plate armor like a knight got in his way.

「Albano, it’s you guys again!」

That man looked overly serious. His black hair was swept all back.

He was also tall and his seriousness was also oozing out from his face.

The members of the party that he was leading were all dressed like knight.

They were wearing metal armor and even brought horses with them.

Erhart made a face of detest seeing that person.

「Creit huh. You guys are so stuffy even when it’s still morning.」

Creit’s group looked like the complete opposite of the frivolous  looking group. Creit’s voice was also loud and gathered the attention of  the surrounding.

He stood imposingly with his fists clenched and began to preach at Albano.

「You guys are making trouble with the rookies again! You would  provoke them to pick a fight with you before turning the table on them,  stop doing something like that. They are our fellow comrades in this  expedition.」

That Creit──Creit Benini(クレート・ベニーニ)’s claim made Albano who was  sitting on a wooden box to point at Erhart’s group with a jerk of his  chin while replying.

「Look carefully at these guys. Do you think that in their getup  they’ll be able to do the same work like us? They smell like trash since  the morning, and they also don’t have any decent equipment. They’re  just stupid newbies who is taking the guild’s proficiency test. It’ll be  better for them to run away home quickly.」

Creit turned his gaze toward Erhart’s group before he closed his eyes with a slightly troubled look.

「The guild has allowed their participation. Surely they too are promising adventurers.」

Albano started laughing while holding his stomach.

「Promising!? Ain’t no way that’s the case. The guild is just getting rid of nuisances.」

The two of them were apparently acquainted with each other, but their personalities were the complete opposite from each other.

Because of that they always disagreed with each other.

Although such thing didn’t matter to Erhart.

Erhart felt that he was made fun of and gripped his sword’s handle.

「──Who are you calling nuisances to be rid of? Then how about you have a taste of me here?」

Seeing the action of the young and ignorant Erhart, they eyes of Creit who was covering up for him until now turned cold.

「Take off your hand from your weapon. You won’t be able to win against Albano.」

Erhart got enraged by those words. His face went red and started clamoring.

「What the hell do you know huh! I’m someone who has three Arts. No  one could beat me at my village. Even my father lost against me!」

Creit tilted his head hearing Erhart’s words.

「Three Arts? Forgive me but, I’m not seeing any magic tool on your body?」

「Magic tool? What the hell is that! Don’t say any nonsense you bastard!」

Albano scratched his head with a troubled look when he heard that.

「Which country stick you came from huh? Or rather, what kind of Arts you got?」

Erhart activated his Arts and his arm muscles swelled up.

There was ripping sound from his arms. Even his height got slightly taller.

Blood veins pulsed all over his body.

「How’s that. Amazing right?」

It was a transformation that was clearly a body strengthening Arts in a glance.

Albano’s face turned serious seeing that.

「H~m, ain’t that amazing. I’ll apologize for my words just now. After  all it seems like you’ll be useful for carrying our luggage.」

Erhart felt something snapping inside himself.

「I’ll kill you!」

He forgot himself in his rage and grabbed his great sword. He then charged toward Albano──and fell hard on the ground.

「Buh!?」

He got into a daze because his face was strongly hit. Then a man came hearing the commotion.

The man looked like he was at his late thirty. His blonde hair was parted on one side, making him looked very straight-laced.

In fact the way he talk was also serious.

「What are you guys doing?」

Both Albano and Creit who were addressed were nervous.

「Geh! It’s boss Neu. A troublesome one came.」

「Albano, you’re being rude to Neu-dono!」

His name was Neu Neumann(ノイ・ノイマン).

His name was entered to be the vice captain of the expedition group and he was treated as the leader in this group.

That was just how high the guild’s evaluation for him.

That Neu helped Erhart to stand up.

「Albano, I told you before to not pick any quarrel before the departure.」

「I know.」

Even Albano got obedient when Neu arrived.

Neu talked to Erhart.

「You’re──a rookie who is taking the test?」

「That’s right!」

Erhart wiped his nosebleed with his hand while replying.

「I’m telling you this for your own good. Don’t get into any fight.  This is a test. The guild staffs are watching your action. If you cause a  trouble, you will fail the test no matter how strong you are.」

After being told that, even Erhart could only lower down his raised fist.

He didn’t want to get back into living at the back alley anymore.

He wanted to be recognized as a fully fledged adventurer right away and taking proper quests.

「I-I get it.」

Neu watched Albano and Creit leaving this place, and then he also left.

Before he left, he didn’t forget to give Erhart an advice.

「Also, if you’re going to fight then pick your opponent. Albano is strong.」

Erhart thought while his friends were asking if he was alright──.

(I’ll defeat him right away and show who is stronger here.)

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──Beim’s dungeon was very mysterious.

There was a large hole that opened up with spiraling path along the side.

But it would be more accurate to call the path as town.

Dilapidated houses that looked like they could crumble anytime were  filling the path. Those buildings formed small alleys and gangs that  created a maze.

There was the dazzling light that shined from the central hole, but it was still dim no matter what because of the ceiling.

Because of the spiraling structure, when one looked up the place that  they previously passed would look like ceiling. Mysteriously at the  reverse side of the ground, there was also a townscape that was covered  with buildings just like the surface side.

When night came, the torches inside the dungeon would light up with  bluish white flame. It made the place became needlessly scary.

To begin with the hole itself was huge. Its diameter was more than  3000 meter. When one looked at the opposite side, the place that they  had just passed some time ago would look really small.

They were going down a spiraling hill road, but the width of the road was really wide.

It had a width of three meter.

Erhart was looking down from the edge of the path, but the bottom was pitch black and he couldn’t see anything.

「S-so this is a dungeon.」

They were placed at the center of the column, so they still hadn’t gone through any battle.

But sometimes he could hear the yells of humans and roars of monsters from the front.

This was an eerie place.

When Erhart turned around, his friends were walking using wooden stick like a cane.

「Erhart, I’m feeling painful for some reason.」

「It feels unpleasant.」

「Are the guys around us alright?」

Erhart acted tough when he saw his comrades who looked like they were drunk.

「Just this much ain’t any problem at all! Forget about that, isn’t there an easier way if we’re just going down?」

One of his comrades looked up at the ceiling with a puzzled look.

It was already strange that there was an upside down city above them, but the dim place with dilapidated buildings felt ominous.

「H-hey, even though there is a hole this deep, why isn’t Beim that is on top of this hole falling? It made me scared.」

Erhart couldn’t answer even if he was asked that.

「T-that’s, you know! There was a super thick plank on the hole and built the city on top of it.」

Then Neu who was keeping an eye on the surrounding’s safety from the center told Erhart the answer.

「Is this your first time in a dungeon?」

「Neu──san.」

Erhart wasn’t good at all when facing a calm adult like Neu.

「According to a famous scholar, it seems dungeons are located inside a  different space. We’re only entering into that space. That’s why, no  matter how far you are digging down from Beim, you will only find  ground.」

He told Erhart the answer, but Erhart was unable to understand the meaning at all.

「I, I see, is that so.」

Neu laughed with a troubled face.

「That means Beim will never fall into the hole. More importantly it’s  time to rest. We’re going to rest here for one day, so help us out.」

When Erhart looked around, people were starting to prepare the campsite.

Erhart scratched his head.

「Say, Neu-san.」

「What is it?」

「There is a device in the dungeon to travel through floors isn’t it?  Won’t it be faster to use that to go until our destination?」

Neu understood what Erhart wanted to say and showed an exasperated expression.

「Haven’t you heard? We have multiple objectives this time. One of  them is to challenge the dungeon from the surface and exterminate the  monsters near the entrance. That objective won’t be achieved if we skip  floors.」

「Aa~, is that so? But, it’s still better to go down quickly. Then what if we use rope to go down, that’ll be faster won’t it?」

When he peered below, he could see the same town like what they had passed until here at the nearby level.

Neu sighed.

「Absolutely don’t try that. Every year there will be adventurers who  try something like that, but they will get sucked by the hole and nobody  ever come back. It’s like the saying, don’t search for shortcut.」

Erhart’s group made a fed up face after Neu left.

「──We won’t be able to show our stuff if we keep staying here. You  guys, no need to help out and just rest your body. Our job is defeating  monsters after all.」

Erhart’s group who was dissatisfied because they didn’t have any  chance to raise achievement went to hide and rest without helping with  setting up the campsite──.

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──Around the time when two week had passed since the start of the expedition.

The treatment that Erhart’s group received was still the same.

They entered a single dilapidated house and sat around a wobbly table while eating the soup that was their lunch.

The soup was accompanied with hard bread.

It was nice that they could eat three times a day just from  participating in the expedition, but Erhart’s group was dissatisfied.

「The food is the same every day.」

「Even though the guys who fight can eat meat, we’re only given vegetable scraps and hard bread.」

「This is because they won’t allow us to go to the front even when we ask.」

At this rate the chance to raise achievement wouldn’t arrive no matter how long they waited.

Erhart resolved himself.

「You guys, listen. Tonight we’re going to sneak out and go to the front.」

「So we’re finally going to do it!」

The young men’s eyes were shining in anticipation of finally being able to defeat monsters just like real adventurers.

「It’s useless no matter how much we ask Neu-san. As I thought it’ll  be better here if we proactively go to the front and show our strength.」

When the night came and they confirmed that everyone had gone to  sleep, Erhart’s group started moving in order to join the front group.

Sometimes there would also be patrol, but in this place they had no lack of hiding place.

Erhart’s group sneaked out like that and moved through the path that had become darker than when it was afternoon.

They created torches and moved with Erhart at the front──then they heard an animal’s voice.

Erhart drew out his great sword and held it at ready.

「Oi, use the torch to search for the enemy! I’ll hack it apart.」

The nervous young men illuminated the surrounding with their torches, then an injured monster that looked like a wolf appeared.

Its red eyes were shining eerily.

「O-oi!」

「I never saw this kind of monster!」

「S-someone help」

Erhart’s friends was surprised by the monster’s appearance and fell into chaos.

It couldn’t be helped. That wolf was bigger than themselves.

Its size was too different than the monsters that they saw near their village.

Erhart took a stance with his great sword and made his muscles bulged up.

「Don’t get scared you guys! Only this monster’s appearance is scary, I’ll take it down with one hit!」

Erhart brandished his great sword and then he swung it down.

Erhart had defeated monsters in this way many times.

He swung the lump of iron with his inflated muscles──with his Arts’ power as hard as he could.

Erhart had never seen even once a monster that could endure this attack.

But, the wolf in front him became the first monster that could.

「Wha-!?」

The wolf quickly stepped back to dodge Erhart’s great sword. The sword tip thrust into the ground deeply.

When he tried to pull the sword out quickly, the wolf bit at the great sword as though to ridicule Erhart’s discomposure.

「L-let go!」

Erhart struggled to take back his great sword, but the wolf didn’t let go and crunched it to pieces.

The young men screamed when they saw that.

「I-IT’S HOPELESSSS!」

「AIN’T NO WAY WE CAN WIN AGAINST SOMETHING LIKE THIS!」

「THAT’S WHY I SAID THAT I DIDN’T WANT TO COME HERE!」

The young man ran away.

Erhart who lost his comrades and also lost the light of the torches was trembling all over within the darkness.

The wolf seemed amused by Erhart’s state. It was moving around Erhart while growling as though to stir up his fear.

「Dammit. Dammit. DAMMITTTTTTT!」

Erhart was yelling while trembling. He ran to the direction of where the wolf’s footstep came from.

He wanted to punch the wolf, but he collided on a dilapidated house’s wall and bounced back, falling on the ground.

The wolf placed its front leg on the chest of Erhart who was lying down face up.

And then it brought its face close. Its drool was trickling on Erhart’s face.

「S-sto──」

The wolf’s opened its mouth wide and its smelly breath reached his nose.

Tears were trickling from his eyes due to terror. The area between  his legs became warm and damp. The smell of ammonia was spreading to the  surrounding.

Then──.

「Haa, so it’s you.」

──He heard an annoyed voice. The wolf raised its face and looked back.

What Erhart saw was multiple lights that had approached near them without him noticing.

With a lantern’s light illuminating the surrounding, he faintly saw a  young man with orange hair jumping down from a house’s rooftop holding a  one-handed sword.

The wolf didn’t even have the time to notice the young man. Its neck was cut off right away by the one-handed sword.

Erhart was showered by the blood that spurted out from the wolf’s neck while watching what happened in a daze.

The wolf’s body slowly fell down.

「Hih!」

His body finally became able to move again together with the shock.  He backed away while his butt was still touching the ground. Then he  noticed that it was Albano who severed the head of the wolf.

He defeated a monster that he couldn’t win against with a weapon that was smaller than his.

He couldn’t believe that.

Albano’s comrades came holding lanterns after that and surrounded Erhart.

「Geh, this guy is covered with blood.」

「It’s the monster’s blood. More importantly, it stink here.」

「Did he wet his pant?」

Erhart then fainted in front of the laughing adventurers──.

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──The next day.

Erhart’s group used the floor transfer device in the dungeon to return to the surface.

They were dragged to the adventurer guild. Waiting there for them  were Marianne and──her superior. That superior talked to Erhart’s group  with a condescending attitude.

「So──you guys ignored order, and on top of that you almost died  because of that. The evaluation of all of you is written in this paper.  It said, you guys only ate for free without even help out with  anything.」

They weren’t useful at all in battle.

Not only that, they weren’t cooperative at all. They didn’t even help  with preparing the campsite. And yet they never missed asking for food.  What would the people around think of such adventurers?

Naturally their evaluation result was the worst.

The male staff in his forty looked at the depressed Erhart’s group and snorted.

「It looks like all of you understand now just how powerless you are.  You all don’t even have any decent equipment and can only talk big,  that’s the current reality. How about all of you just go back home  quietly?」

Erhart lifted his face and glared at the guild staff, but there were armed guards behind the guild staff and Marianne.

Erhart could only keep his mouth shut. He casted his gaze down and clenched his fist.

His other friends were also doing the same.

There was also how they ran away leaving Erhart behind. They kept quiet without saying anything.

Rather there were even some among them who looked relieved, wanting to return back to their village.

Erhart didn’t miss the faces of several of his friends who let out a  sigh of relieve thinking that they would be able to go home with this.

「I won’t understand anything if you don’t say anything. Why did all of you do such thing──」

「Please wait. These kids have also tried their best.」

Marianne cut off her superior’s words and stood up for Erhart’s group.

「Certainly they might be reckless, but an adventurer should at least  have that much guts. Won’t it be fine for us to watch over these kids  for a bit more?」

The superior made a troubled face by Marianne’s appeal.

「──Will you take responsibility for them? They have caused trouble for the guild you know?」

Would you look after these guys?

Marianne nodded with a serious expression at that question.

「Please allow me to be in charge of these kids. If they still wish to  remain in Beim even after this, I will firmly take care of them as  their exclusive advisor. I swear I will turn them into fully fledged  adventurers no matter what.」

Erhart raised his face when he heard those earnest words of Marianne.

He felt so happy that tears came out.

No one had ever treated him this kindly since he came to this metropolis.

「Marianne-san, I──I」

Marianne comforted the crying Erhart.

「It’s alright. But, I will be strict with you from here on. Will you listen to my words properly?」

Erhart nodded.

「Y-yes! I’ll do my best for Marianne-san’s sake!」

Marianne smiled to hear that. Her superior shrugged.

「Let’s do our best together.」

「Yes!」

Like this Erhart’s group ended their test with a failure.

They only joined the expedition for two weeks before leaving at the middle.