Nada Volume 2, Chapter 12

Episode 12 – Suspicion

Dan kept thinking about the moment he let go of that hand.

Right before he fell into the deep darkness, he had seen the hand of a woman. Serena. It was Serena’s hand. Dan regretted not being able to grasp her hand properly.

Because surely—more than himself—Serena was the one who must be blaming herself for failing to save him.

His first encounter with Serena went back two years.

By then, Dan had already joined his current party, while Serena acted solo and belonged to no party.
He heard later that instead of joining some party and settling into stable adventures, she earned more by making use of her ability and temporarily joining parties in exchange for Calvaon or money.

Of course, Dan had already known of Serena back then. She didn’t know who he was, but she was famous at the academy.

They called her—the Oasis of the Dungeon.

True to that name, having her at the party made expeditions run smoothly. Normally, once adventurers step into a dungeon, they can’t afford to drop their guard for even a second. Even if no monster appeared before their eyes, the dungeon housed all kinds of creatures—ones clinging to the ceiling like bats, ones blending into the walls like chameleons, even monsters disguised as corpses.

That was why adventurers had to stay tense even during breaks.

But with Serena, her ability Escondil UteroSelf-Indulgent Garden allowed them to rest in a space where they could relax even inside the dungeon. Resting while constantly keeping your nerves alert versus resting inside Serena’s ability, where you could even doze off if you wanted—of course, the latter lets you recover far more strength.

In fact, Serena was extremely popular among adventurers at the time.

There were exceptions like Aghiya’s party, which chose not to rely on her, but many parties wanted her—especially mid-tier parties who had the skill yet couldn’t quite rise to the next rank.

Even Sekha, a party that had always been slightly below mid-tier, had tried several times to contact her, according to its former leader. But Serena had never joined Sekha—or anyone else—because she was overwhelmed with too many bookings to even work as a temporary helper.

Thinking about why someone so stubborn about staying solo ended up joining Sekha made Dan remember that day.

That day, Sekha—Dan’s party—was exploring the dungeon. As usual, they were adventuring mainly between the mid and upper layers. Back then, they didn’t have the strength to explore the middle layers consistently, and simply touching them was difficult enough.

It was during such a time that they found a party being crushed by a single monster.

Cooperation between parties inside a dungeon was strongly recommended, and there was even a rule that the party being saved must pay a portion of the reward to the rescuers.

Naturally, Sekha helped them. And of course, the key figure was Dan. 

Normally, parties didn’t have someone with the Gift of the Healing God. But Dan, who possessed such a gift, had the same spirit as the Healing God—helping anyone wounded in the dungeon, no matter who they were. It was one of the Church’s teachings, and Dan adhered to it strictly.

Among the ones Dan healed was Serena.

Especially Serena, who had been on the verge of death. The reason her life was saved was largely thanks to Dan’s Gift. Even if the monster had been defeated, she had been in a condition beyond what ordinary treatment could handle.

“When I lost consciousness in the dungeon and woke up in the hospital… You came to visit. I owe you my life. From now on, I want to use this life for your sake—”

That was what she told him, lying on the bed.

Of course Dan had been shocked by her sudden declaration, and at first, he refused. He hadn’t saved her for such a reason—he did it because it was the Church’s teaching.

He told her she didn’t need to do anything like that, but Serena wouldn’t listen.

Afterward, Dan talked with her many times and learned that she came from a knightly family. Her ancestors had once served the king, and from the very first generation, they were taught that finding one’s own lord was the family’s pride and honor.

She also said that relying too heavily on her ability, Self-Indulgent Garden, and neglecting her sword training had been one of the causes of her failure in that incident.

After various twists and turns, Serena joined Sekha—and Dan compromised. Originally, even that had been undesirable for him. But no one in the party opposed her joining, and she was naturally accepted.

Dan, being the softhearted type who couldn’t refuse when someone earnestly asked him, couldn’t turn her down once she pushed strongly enough—even if her joining was ultimately because of him.

And ever since she joined Sekha, up until now, Dan felt he had been protected by Serena within the environment of their party. Her protection bordered on blind devotion, and even if he suffered the slightest injury, she would often belittle herself, saying things like “I failed to protect Dan.”

And yet, this time, Dan had failed to grasp Serena’s hand.

When he thought about how utterly devastated she must be over that, Dan’s chest grew heavy.

That was the dream Dan was having.

“—Oi, wake up!”

A voice pulled Dan’s consciousness out of that haze.

It was a man’s voice.

Harsh, loud, almost as if shouting.

“Who…?”

Dan slowly opened his eyes to see who it belonged to.

He recognized the person.

“Oi, you okay?”

It was Bramia.

The flame-like tattoo running from his right eye down to his jaw was as striking as ever, matching perfectly with Dan’s memories of him.

“Mm… yeah, I’m fine, but… where are we…?”

Dan recalled the moment right before he lost consciousness. The ground had suddenly given way beneath him, and although he’d tried to grab Serena’s hand, he had missed and fallen into the abyss.

He had no idea how far he’d fallen, but apparently he’d lost consciousness on the way down, so his memory was foggy.

Feeling the springy, flesh-like floor beneath him, Dan figured this surface had cushioned his fall and saved his life. His ribs were broken from the impact, but none had pierced his lungs or other organs, so he seemed to be out of immediate danger.

As he quickly applied his healing Gift to himself, Bramia began to speak about their situation.

“Somewhere inside the dragon’s body. Don’t ask me where. I blacked out while falling too. More importantly, can’t see the other five anywhere. Did we get separated?”

Just like Bramia, Dan sat up and looked around, but none of their companions were in sight. All that greeted him was a floor bristling with countless blade-like spikes jutting upward from the flesh. Luckily, the area where they had fallen had no spikes, but beyond this safe patch, rows of them stretched out at regular intervals, blocking their path.

“Looks like it… I wonder if everyone’s okay.”

Dan gave Bramia a weak smile.

“…Who knows. But if you want my guess, Corvo’s probably alive. No idea about the others, though.”

“Yeah, Corvo-san seems like he’d survive. He’s probably been through way worse than this. Still… I’m really worried about Serena.”

Bramia tilted his head, something in Dan’s words catching his attention.

“You’re worried about that dark-skinned woman instead of that twig-limbed Vinya guy? She’ll be fine. With that ability of hers, she could’ve used it somewhere mid-fall to save herself. Shouldn’t you be worrying about Vinya Tree? You two were friends, right?”

Bramia’s puzzled expression made Dan chuckle softly.

“Yeah, I get why you’d think that. But Nada’s surprisingly lucky, you know. I don’t think he’s dead. Serena, though… she’s mentally unstable right now. She’ll have a harder time with this.”

“I see… So, are we going to look for them? From here it looks impossible even to find an exit—”

Looking around, Bramia realized how difficult it would be to even locate Serena or Nada.

As far as the eye could see—just a forest of blades.

The spikes were grotesque in shape, nothing like straight sword edges; they were jagged, twisted, designed to tear flesh and draw blood. A single touch would cause injury.

“Yeah. Besides, all I can do is heal people. It’s not like I can find a way out. And Bramia, you’re basically in the same boat—you can’t get out of here on your own, right?”

Dan asked with a mischievous grin, like a kid teasing someone.

All Bramia could do was nod.

◆◆◆

A short distance away, in a different location, there was a dome-shaped space made of flesh.

Two people had fallen there.

Corvo and Clarisse.

When Corvo fell from above earlier, his rib had snapped, and a blue bruise had formed over his eye. The pain bothered him, so he took a painkiller from the pouch at his waist and tossed the now-empty vial onto the fleshy floor. In doing so, he noticed that his armor and clothing had been damaged, but Corvo decided not to concern himself with it.

Clarisse lay sprawled on the flesh as if unconscious, and while Corvo cast her a sidelong glance—confirming she had no visible external injuries—he kept his focus trained on the enemy before him.

A bug.

A bug stood in front of him.

Just one.

But this bug was far larger than the ones he had seen before.

No—more than just large… it looked far sharper.

Its body was a metallic silver-white, and its entire form resembled a weapon.

Its sharply contoured body was slender, with its front and rear halves clearly separated to the eye. Attached to the rear half were four thin, muscular legs that looked built for speed. At the tips of what appeared to be the two forelimbs on its front half, circular saws were mounted, and the metal sound they produced echoed deeply through the fleshy dome—as if they were playing a dirge of death.

Its eyes glowed red, yet showed no signs of life—no biological traits at all—making it seem more like a monster constructed from machinery.

“A pretty tough one finally shows up…”

With a faint chuckle, Corvo drew the jade sword at his waist.

Its blade carried not a single scratch—an overwhelming shade of deep green, almost luminous. From blade to hilt, it was crafted entirely of jade, as if a massive jade stone had been carefully polished into the shape of a sword. Because of that, it had no guard, and even the boundary between blade and hilt was unclear. At best, one could distinguish the blade only by the lack of an edge on the grip side.

Holding the sword roughly in his right hand, Corvo invoked his ability.

“《Ogre Slayer》.”

It was Corvo’s unique skill—his One-Off Ability.

In that instant, Corvo’s right arm swelled grotesquely. As though it were being inflated with air, the arm ballooned out. But it wasn’t just the muscle—his bones expanded as well. His right arm grew to nearly his full height and thickened to the width of a woman's waist.

The sight was less human and more monster—more oni—with bulging blue veins crawling grotesquely across his bicep.

In that massive arm, the jade sword looked no more than a knife.

Against ordinary enemies—mere monsters—the ability was so strong it wasn’t even worth using. And yet its effect was simple: it increased the user’s physical strength.

Many adventurers possessed similar abilities, but only Corvo’s caused such a dramatic, visible increase—muscles and bones expanding alike.

“All right, let’s go… monster.”

Delighted at the rare chance to use his ability again, Corvo lifted his swollen arm high overhead, and with a face twisted in pleasure, addressed the monster before him.

As if responding, the bug raced toward Corvo with its circular saws spinning at high speed.

Then—one strike.

Corvo smashed one of the saws head-on. Though the spinning made the saw’s individual blades hard to see, the disk carried countless teeth, which occasionally snagged against the jade blade. Yet even against that, the jade sword remained unscathed.

Corvo immediately shattered one of the saws and followed up by bringing the same strike down upon the bug’s face.

The bug wasn’t sliced cleanly in two; its helmet-like head merely dented slightly.

But Corvo didn’t stop. He swung again and again, crushing the head piece by piece until eventually the remains scattered across the ground as shredded metal scrap.

“Haah… this ability really is exhausting…”

He had lost count of how many times he had swung.

But what lay at his feet was undeniably the remains of a monster—because among the metal scrap, a dull gleam of Calvaon could be seen.

From experience, Corvo could tell it wasn’t worth taking back.

Next, he turned his swollen arm downward and slashed at the floor beneath him.

However, the blow only carved a shallow cut into the pink flesh, from which a little red blood seeped. It didn’t even come close to severing it fully.

If I could cut through the dragon’s belly with this ability, escaping would be simple, Corvo thought. But he wasn’t discouraged. The last time he fought a dragon, the results had been similar. He knew full well that he lacked the power to defeat a dragon easily.

Moreover, Ogre Slayer increased muscle strength, not cutting power. The jade sword was sharp, but only slightly better than the one Bramia carried. That level of sharpness wasn’t enough to harm a dragon.

“—So, you’re awake, right? Clarisse. How about you stop pretending to sleep already?”

Corvo said this while glaring at Clarisse, who was lying down behind him.

Reacting to his words, Clarisse sat up, settled into a duck-like sitting position, and let out an awkward laugh with a strained smile. 

“Ahaha, so you caught me. Well, I’m really glad you were here with me, Corvo-senpai. I mean, that terrifying monster was right nearby. If I’d been alone, it definitely would’ve killed me.”

She spoke with a relieved tone, but Corvo’s expression didn’t change at all.

“So? Why?”

His tone was the same—strict as always.

“‘Why?’ As in why I’m awake? Obviously, because I woke up from the monster and Corvo-senpai fighting earlier.”

“—That’s a lie.”

Corvo immediately rejected her excuse.

“No way, come on.” 

Clarisse said, puffing out her cheeks in protest. But he still didn’t waver.

“Don’t lie to me. After falling into that abyss completely defenseless, I ended up with broken ribs and bruises on my face. I’m sure I’ve got more under my clothes. But you? Not a single injury. Even I’m like this, and I’m trained. For a Gift-user like you to be that unscathed… it means you must have used some method to negate the impact right before hitting the ground.”

“I just got lucky.” 

Clarisse snapped back, annoyed. But Corvo sighed, then continued.

“Fine, then let me ask something else.”

“Sure, sure. What’s the question? About what should we do now? Personally, I think we should look for the others—”

“—Why don’t you use your Gift?”

At that, Clarisse’s breath halted for a moment.

“I am using my Gift. I used it when we destroyed that big rock, remember?” She said, feigning innocence.

“No. That’s not what I mean. Your Gift comes from the God of Darkness, doesn’t it? The essence of the darkness gift is destruction. Its nature is to corrode and break anything. With such a power, why aren’t you using it to destroy the dragon?”

The most destructive gift of all is the darkness gift. It works on any monster, and its black torrent of destruction can even be channeled to allies.

Of course, Corvo knew all of this.

“Because it doesn’t work on dragons,” Clarisse answered casually.

But—

“I’ve never heard of any second-year student who’s fought a dragon. In fact, I know every student who has ever fought one. If your power is that strong, the normal reaction would be to use it at least once to try breaking through this flesh so we can escape. That’s what I think.”

When a dragon shows up and someone barely escapes, the academy requires a full report of the dungeon dive. Even if they didn’t report it, rumors would spread. It’s nearly impossible to hide everything.

Corvo hadn’t checked every single case himself, but he had never heard of a second-year group defeating huge threats like strays or dragons—and certainly never heard a rumor involving Clarisse, who was widely known in the academy.

“So what are you getting at?” she asked, irritation clear in her voice as Corvo heard her click her tongue.

“Then let me ask again. What benefit is there for you to stay inside this dragon’s stomach? What goal do you have for shutting yourself in here instead of escaping?”

At that question, Clarisse twisted her lips into a wicked grin.

Previous Chapter - TOC - Next Chapter