Chapter 31: Adventurers Are Banned!?

"Ufufufufu, adventurers really are convenient in times like this. Even if we kill you, you just revive at the temple, so we don’t have to feel guilty at all. And if you’re unregistered, it’s not even a crime anymore. The Adventurer Prohibition Act is just wonderful."

In a sealed-off chamber deep within the royal capital’s underground waterways, a man wearing knight-like armor, seemingly the leader of the soldiers who had stormed the hideout of Dias and the anti-regulation resistance, leered obscenely as he pointed his sword at Dias.

The pompous words that came out of his mouth made me blurt out a question without thinking.

"W-Wait, the Adventurer Prohibition Act!?"

"That’s right. A lukewarm law like the Adventurer Registration Act just lets people like you crawl underground and resist like this, you see. So we decided to ban adventuring itself altogether. Ufufufufufu!"

"Damn it! Was it you who got Ratok and the others too!?"

Dias roared at the man. Ratok must have been the player who burst into the room earlier and then vanished into light.

"Ratok? You mean that sewer rat from earlier and his little friends? They had no chance against these numbers, but they resisted pathetically, so we killed one of their comrades as a warning. He very kindly led us straight here. Idiot. Don’t worry, though. By now, he and everyone else have probably revived at the temple, haven’t they? Though once they revive, they’ll just be surrounded by soldiers waiting at the temple and adventurers on our side, so they won’t be able to do anything anyway!"

Clenching his fists in frustration, Dias glared at the several adventurer-like figures standing behind the knight.

"Shit...! You guys are adventurer players too, right!? Why are you obeying someone like this!?"

They didn’t answer and instead looked away. The knight spoke in their place.

"No, no. They aren’t adventurers anymore. They do jobs assigned by the royal government, so they’re basically civil servants now. You should do the same. It’s far better than living that rough, hand-to-mouth adventurer life, don’t you think? This country doesn’t need adventurers anymore!"

In the cramped room, the knight’s subordinate soldiers and adventurers slowly closed in on us. Dias stepped back, and the rest of us were driven all the way to the wall.

"What do we do...? Fight our way out...?"

"If they all rush us at once in a space this tight, we can’t handle all of them, nya."

"I can barely use spirit magic here, there are just too many restrictions..."

"Sounds like there are a bunch of soldiers outside the room too... If it’s do or die, I think my Tatsumaki Senpukyaku could mow down a few of them, but..."

As we were desperately thinking of a way to escape, the knight took another step forward, wearing a sticky, smug grin.

"You can resist if you want, you know? It’ll be more fun for us that way. Ufufufufu. How does it feel now, you adventurers who strutted around like heroes, acting as if you were the protagonists of this world? With the Adventurer Prohibition Act, you can’t do whatever you want anymore! Ufufufufufu... ugh...!?"

Right in the middle of his gloating speech, the knight suddenly shuddered violently, his body jerking as his eyes rolled back. He collapsed on the spot. The surrounding soldiers and adventurers fell the same way, twitching uncontrollably with unfocused eyes.

"Man, that guy sure liked the sound of his own voice. No way he could resist my illusion magic when he was all pent up and bursting at the seams like that. He was getting all worked up while he was talking, you know. I’m not one to judge people’s tastes, but if you let things fester too much, it won’t work when it really counts. You’re better off venting your libido properly with some nice, dirty fun."

Scarlet, who had been quiet until now and whom I’d assumed wasn’t interested in human squabbles, shrugged with an American-style gesture, palms up, and looked down at the fallen men with a weary expression.

"A-Amazing, nya! Did Scar-chan do all of this, nya!?"

"Just bad luck that they were all men full of pent-up desire. Even I didn’t expect such a big group to fall for it so easily. They must’ve been really desperate. Right now they’re all enjoying a super indecent dreamtime."

"You did it, Scarlet! Nice job!"

When Shogo praised him, Scarlet’s face flushed bright red. He pressed his hands to his cheeks and let his expression melt into a sloppy grin.

"E-ehhehehe♡ I’m so happy Shogo-san praised me♡ Then I want you to Hadoken me again later♡ Once you’ve tasted that dense, radiant life force, there’s no way you can go back to feeding on the cloudy energy of guys like these♡"

"Whoa!? Y-Yeah, later! For now, we need to get out of here, fast!"

A rom-com, huh.

Ririka, Natsumi, Dias, and I all watched the embarrassingly sweet exchange between the homeless-looking martial artist and the succubus with complicated expressions. But Shogo was right. We needed to escape.

We slipped out of the room, weaving between the men sprawled on the floor, their faces slack in sleep as they continued to twitch eerily.

Outside, along the walkway beside the waterway, more than ten men lay collapsed and twitching as well. Natsumi groaned openly, his face twisting in disgust.

"Ugh, there were this many outside too..."

"This is part of the drinking water system, right...? I really hope nothing weird drips into the water..."

"Going straight back to the surface is dangerous, nya. These underground waterways lead all the way outside the royal capital, so we should head out of town and surface from a different exit, nya. This way, nya."

We nodded to each other and followed Ririka deeper into the underground waterways.

"Poison Rats, nya! Be careful, nya! These guys are more vicious than Grass Rats or Wood Rats, and they’re poisonous, nya!"

After proceeding through the dim waterway for a while, guided by the magical light glowing from Natsumi’s staff, monsters appeared just as expected.

"Then take this! Hadoken!"

"I can use water magic freely here! Hydro Cutter!"

"Ririka wants a projectile attack too, nya! Nyaa!"

"No way low-tier monsters like this can beat a succubus like me! Learn the difference in class!"

They were recolored versions of the round, mouse-like creatures we’d seen in forests and grasslands before. This time, they were an unpleasant, toxic purple, stripped of any charm. Shogo’s and Natsumi’s ranged attacks tore into the swarm, while anything that slipped through was finished off by Ririka’s kicks and Scarlet’s claws.

That said, while Shogo’s techniques could knock enemies out no matter how many times he hit them, they apparently couldn’t actually kill them. The stunned, collapsed rats were finished off by Ririka and Scarlet, turning into motes of light, coins, and occasionally rainbow-colored ore.

Dias and I just watched from the rear.

When each battle ended, we continued onward along the walkway beside the waterway. Repeating this process several times, we made our way toward the exit that led outside the city.

"Erika, there’s a reason, but we’re underground again. Can you hear me?"

"Yes, Master. I understand the situation. But why do you so casually head into underground areas where support is difficult? Since when did you start liking holes and burrows so much?"

"That’s just how this world works, unfortunately... Anyway, keep track of our position so you can deploy support at any time."

"Understood. I’ll have Dragoon units take turns standing by overhead every three hours."

While following Ririka through the underground waterways, I checked in with Erika via comms. Even underground, as long as it was Erika’s magically modified drill container, support was possible, so as long as she didn’t lose track of our position, we could rest easy.

"Who were you talking to?"

Shogo, walking ahead of me, asked.

"Oh, it’s from a game I used to play. Actually, it wasn’t just an FPS... well, it did have FPS elements, but there was a lot of equipment and stuff. I’ve got allies outside, and they’ve got a transport craft standing by overhead that can provide support."

"I see. That’s reassuring. Still, if it comes to fighting in a place like this, leave it to me. In close combat, your own body is the most reliable weapon."

As Shogo confidently raised his fist, Scarlet slipped her arm around his and cut in between us.

"Exactly, exactly, and I’m here too♡ Against male creatures, a succubus is unbeatable♡ We already know how strong Clari-chan is after seeing you take down that Iron Golem, so I want you to relax and just follow along behind us. Right? Shogo-san♡"

"N-No, Scarlet, if you cling to me like that, it’s hard to walk..."

Seeing this, Natsumi muttered with an openly sour expression.

"...Are we going to have to watch this lovey-dovey act the whole way...? I’ve completely lost my motivation, so I’ll just quietly follow along in the back... alone... silently..."

"I get how you feel. Scarlet, we’re not trying to make a move on Shogo or anything, so you don’t need to be on guard."

"W-What are you saying, Clari-chan! I’d never think like that! Ehehehehe!"

Scarlet’s oddly sweet, bashful reaction, despite being a succubus, left me a little fed up, so I changed the subject and asked Ririka, who was leading the way.

"We’ve been walking for quite a while now. Aren’t we at the exit yet? We should be outside the city by now, right?"

Ririka turned back with an awkward, strained smile.

"T-That’s strange, nya...? When I came through these waterways before, I thought the exit was this way, nya..."

"Before means when it was still just a game, right...? The sense of scale might be different..."

This idiot cat-eared girl. She’d been leading us so confidently that I assumed she knew the route, but she was actually lost.

"D-Dias, do you know where this waterway leads?"

"You know I’m a low-level player... The only part of the waterways I know is a small area near the city exit. I’ve never come this far in..."

"Seriously...? Doesn’t anyone know a map of these underground waterways or something?"

Everyone avoided each other’s eyes as an awkward silence fell. I’m so done with this idiot party. They’re great in a fight, but useless otherwise.

"Map display magic is an initial priest-class spell, though..."

"Can’t ask for what we don’t have, nya..."

"More importantly, how far do these waterways even go? You said there was a waterway door even under the goblin cave near Taliya Village, right? Don’t tell me..."

"The underground waterways run all throughout the Kingdom of Larentia, nya. Beyond that are the ruins of the ancient dwarf underground kingdom, and even deeper, the underworld supposedly connects all the way to Granseal and the Aste Empire, nya. But that area’s endgame content for hardcore players around level 200, so even Ririka’s never been there, nya."

"Ah, about that underworld, it’s about half collapsed and buried right now. The labyrinth I was in was thrown into chaos when demons and magical beasts fleeing from there flooded in."

Hearing Scarlet’s story, Shogo and Dias both lowered their gazes, looking thoughtful.

"Even demons can’t beat natural disasters, huh... I’m from Fukushima, so I kind of sympathize..."

"I worked building temporary housing back in the real world. Disasters are no joke."

I’m from the Kanto region myself, so I have my own thoughts, but right now we were lost in an underground waterway in another world. Getting back to the surface came first.

"No choice. We’ll just open another hole somewhere and go back up..."

"Wait, nya. There looks like there’s a door up ahead, nya. We might be able to get outside from there."

Ririka said that and started walking, but judging from the direction the water was flowing, it was clearly heading even deeper underground. Resolving that this would be the last time I let this idiot cat-ear guide us, I followed her anyway.

At the dead end where the water flowed into a hole in the wall, there was a stone door identical to the one we’d seen in the cave near Taliya Village. It didn’t look like an exit at all, but Ririka stood confidently in front of it.

"In dungeons like this, unexpected places sometimes connect to the outside, nya. There’s probably stairs on the other side, nya."

"I hope so. If we can’t get out from here, I’ll ask Erika to rescue us and dig a hole from the surface."

"Um, I’m not worried about us being unable to get out, but... don’t you hear something coming from the other side of the door?"

Was it because he was an elf that his hearing was so sharp? Though if that were the case, Ririka’s cat ears should be even better. Still, when Natsumi pointed it out and I focused, I could indeed hear the sound of something heavy moving beyond the door.

"...I’ve got a bad feeling about this. In that cave too, there was an Iron Golem on the other side of a door just like this."

"Y-You’re overthinking it, nya. All the doors in these waterways are like this, nya. It’s probably just the sound of a waterwheel or something, nya. We’ll know once we open it, nya."

As if to prove her point, Ririka operated the switch at the center of the door. Just like in the goblin cave, the stone door opened with a heavy grinding rumble.

"Sorry, but that definitely wasn’t a waterwheel."

"Ririka-san, you’re a good girl, so when you don’t know something, you should say you don’t know, okay?"

"...I’m sorry, nya. Honestly, I kind of suspected it might be something like this."

Beyond the door was the same kind of altar chamber we’d seen in the goblin cave. The collapsed stone statue we’d seen there, and what appeared to be an Iron Golem born from it, were now fighting an unfamiliar young girl.

The girl had deployed a barrier like a magical shield and was barely managing to fend off the Iron Golem’s attacks.

"A-Adventurers!? Perfect timing! A golem of this level cannot wound me, but I have no way to defeat it! Lend me your strength at once!"

The young girl ordered us around in an imperious tone.