Episode 23 – Survival III
Nada, doing exactly as Dan told him, ended up meeting face-to-face with the members from that day.
The place was a restaurant.
It was a wooden building, and its distinctive sign featured a man with a black beard holding a fork and knife in both hands.
Nada remembered it as a slightly pricey place, proud of its homemade bread and garlic-topped steak. Back when he was in Aghiya, he had used it several times for meetings that doubled as meals.
“This is it, Nada—”
Dan, who hadn’t said a single word since they left Nada’s room, finally spoke once they reached their destination.
But his voice was ice-cold.
He was clearly still angry.
Dan himself was dressed in gray slacks and a gray jacket, with a white shirt underneath. It was a casual version of formal wear—he wasn’t wearing a tie. Nada assumed this was Dan’s idea of dressing properly.
Nada knew the place had no dress code. Back in the Aghiya days, he had eaten here many times while still in his dungeon-exploration gear. Even so, Nada was also dressed formally.
Like Dan, he wasn’t wearing a tie, but he had on a black suit—jacket and trousers, with a white shirt underneath, unbuttoned to the second button. But because of his overflowing muscles, the fabric strained tight across his body everywhere.
The only reason Nada was dressed like this was because Dan had shown up in decent clothes, so he matched him.
Also, even if the adventurers they were meeting had been temporary party members, they were basically strangers. It didn’t feel right to show up underdressed.
“Yeah. Got it—”
Nada answered Dan and followed him inside the restaurant.
The moment the door opened, the sound of meat sizzling on an iron grill and the smell of juicy steak mixed with fragrant bread hit Nada’s nose, stirring his appetite.
It goes without saying that he swallowed instinctively.
The interior wasn’t small, but not especially spacious either, and the staff were bustling back and forth between the tables and the kitchen.
There were around ten tables in total, all six-seaters, and almost every seat was filled.
“Nada, over here.”
Dan spoke with the staff member who had rushed over to greet them at the entrance.
It seemed the others had already gathered, because the staff began guiding Dan and Nada to their room.
But not to the first floor, where voices were lively and the space open.
To the second floor.
This restaurant had two floors.
The first had no real personal space, but the second floor was entirely private rooms. That was also the area Nada had used back in Aghiya.
Dan entered the indicated room first, and Nada followed right behind him.
—And then he felt it.
A killing intent so sharp it was like facing a monster inside the dungeon.
Dan was already seated in the chair closest to the door, smiling with only his mouth, his eyes cold as ever as he looked at Nada.
The man in the white suit and black shirt was Bramia. He glared at Nada with bloodshot eyes full of murderous rage, as though he were ready to kill him right then and there. He didn’t say a single word—just clasped his hands on the round table in front of the six of them and stared.
Serena was looking at Nada with a bitter expression. She wore a red dress, boldly showing off her deep cleavage, legs crossed provocatively.
Amarelo was all smiles as he looked at Nada, but his gaze was intensely scrutinizing, as though studying him with great interest. He was dressed in a kimono—unwilling to abandon his homeland’s customs even in a place like this.
Clarisse, upon seeing Nada, scratched her cheek with her finger, looking awkward. She glanced back and forth between Bramia and Dan several times, then back at Nada, and looked even more uncomfortable. She wore a black dress, a cute one decorated with flowers around the chest.
And finally, Corvo wasn’t looking at Nada at all. He alone had his hands folded together and his eyes closed. He wore a suit—navy, a standard color—but something about it seemed refined, suggesting it might be expensive.
Then Corvo slowly opened one eye and parted his lips slightly.
“Well then, have a seat—”
“Yeah—”
Nada quietly did as Corvo told him and sat in the empty chair at the round table.
The moment Nada sat down, Dan called over to the staff member waiting beside the door and told them to bring the dishes and drinks they had ordered.
From that point on, no one said a word.
They simply stared at Nada in silence.
Nada kept a calm expression even under the heavy pressure of six people’s gazes, looking at each of them in turn.
Soon, the staff returned with an hors d’oeuvre salad and a red fruit wine. The staff member nervously handed out the wooden cups of fruit wine to all seven of them, then quickly fled the room as if escaping the heavy atmosphere.
And then Corvo spoke again.
“Probably… this is the first and last time the seven of us will ever gather like this outside the dungeon. Once today ends, there’s a chance some of us won’t say another word to the others ever again. But we were toyed with by the dragon, met in that dungeon, and became a temporary party. Everyone must have plenty they want to say, but—”
Corvo scanned the room, then fixed his eyes on Nada.
“—Tonight, enjoy the feast I arranged. It’s a celebration of survival. …Cheers.”
“—Cheers.”
Even in that suffocating tension, everyone except Corvo managed to say it in unison.
All seven took a sip of the fruit wine.
“Alright! First, I have something I want to ask this ‘Giant Vinya Tree’—!!”
Bramia slammed his cup onto the table with a thud and shot to his feet, about to shout at Nada—but Corvo stopped him with a hand. He clearly had a lot he wanted to yell, but once Corvo halted him, even he had no choice but to sit back down.
Corvo then addressed Nada in a gentle voice.
“Nada, there’s a lot we all want to ask you. That goes for everyone here—”
At his words, the other five nodded.
Nada listened silently.
“…Yeah, I know—”
“Then, first—”
“Before that, let me ask something. Mine’ll be quick. After that, I’ll answer as many of your questions as you want—”
Corvo looked around at the other five, and when no one objected, he nodded.
“Understood. We’ll start with Nada. What do you want to ask? What do you want to know?”
Nada thought for a few seconds, then finally spoke.
“I only need one thing. After that—after I tried to attack the ‘insect’ and coughed up blood—what happened from then until you all made it back from the dungeon?”
When they heard Nada’s question, Dan was the only one who muttered, “I knew it…”
Just from that, he understood that Nada had lost his memory at that point, and everything beyond that was vague.
Corvo also realized it, but chose not to comment and instead began explaining, slowly, piece by piece, what had happened afterward.
Corvo did most of the talking, with the other four adding details where needed.
After Nada lost consciousness, the remaining four—excluding Serena and Dan—defeated the “insert.”
The high-quality Calvaon that the six supposedly brought back, the one rumors mentioned, had actually been something Corvo picked up from inside the insect’s body.
Right after they defeated the “insect,” Nada stabbed the dragon’s heart. A massive amount of blood gushed out, and all six of them escaped into Serena’s Ability.
But then a weakness in Serena’s Ability revealed itself, and they were swept away—who knows how far—along with the blood.
They eventually washed up in a small chamber with a broken ceiling. All that remained there were red bloodstains; otherwise, it was nothing more than an upper-floor section of the Podie dungeon.
When they exited the dungeon, the academy staff were shocked that they had returned after going missing for the same reason as Nada. They gave a simple explanation of their situation, then the six rested for a while—and during that time, they learned that Nada had also returned.
And when Corvo learned that Nada had returned, he apparently decided to hold a celebration—so that’s why everyone had gathered here.
“—That’s how things are. We’re still in the middle of resting, so we’ve only given a brief report to the Academy, and we haven’t even exchanged the Calvaon Bramia found.”
“Why not?”
Nada couldn’t understand it.
The Academy always demanded quick disclosure of information, and they pushed for Calvaon to be exchanged immediately.
Corvo glanced at Dan and gave a faint smile. Dan, receiving that smile, scratched his head awkwardly.
“Well, Dan over there said, ‘Nada is definitely alive, so please wait on the report.’ If Nada were dead, we could’ve—no, I could’ve sent the report up myself. But if he were alive, we’d need to include that information too, right? So I waited until you came back alive before submitting anything—”
“I see…”
Nada looked at Dan, and his expression softened.
Dan had believed he would survive.
Just that alone made his heart feel warm.
“So, did you get all the answers you wanted?”
“Yeah—”
Nada nodded at Corvo.
“Then next, it’s our turn to ask—”
“Excuse me.”
Cutting off Corvo’s words, a server entered through the door.
He was carrying today’s main dishes—several servings of steak and bread.
Corvo gave a wry smile when he saw the staff bringing the food, then said to Nada,
“Once all the dishes are served, we’ll ask our questions. Sound good?”
“Yeah. I know—”
Nada nodded.
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