Episode 48 – The Three
That day, three adventurers had gathered.
Iris. Corvo. Koroa.
The place was a bar where alcohol was served, and there were a few customers. The entrance was designed so it couldn’t be seen from outside—a hidden bar—and even among the students of Larva Academy, very few knew of its existence.
Neither Iris nor Koroa had known about this place.
Corvo was the one who invited the two of them.
It was only two days after they defeated the Hundred-Armed Knight.
“How long has it been since the last time we gathered like this?”
“Well, probably back when we decided to leave the party at the same time.”
Iris replied while resting her cheek on her hand.
“Well, since I’m the one who invited you two today, drink whatever you like.”
The three sat at the counter in casual clothes rather than armor—Iris, Corvo, and Koroa, in that order.
Corvo wore a standard black suit, probably on his way back from somewhere.
Iris wore jeans with a white shirt.
Koroa had on a hooded top and jeans—both dressed casually.
“Then I’ll have some white wine—”
“I’ll take the cognac they have here.”
Iris ordered white wine, Koroa ordered brandy, and Corvo followed with bourbon whiskey.
Once the bartender prepared their drinks, Koroa took a small sip of the brandy in his wide-rimmed glass and spoke to Corvo beside him.
“So, Corvo. Why did you call us here?”
“Well, I wanted to hear what you two thought about this last adventure. After all, the three of us fell behind our juniors this time. I figured each of us has something to feel about that.”
Corvo took a sip of his bourbon.
“What I thought? I was happy. Seeing our juniors grow. Especially Nada and Reaon—they had their messes, but seeing them become fine adventurers made me proud—”
Iris said with a bright smile after downing her wine in one go.
She clearly meant it. Her expression was delighted as she emptied her glass.
“Iris feels that way, huh. What about you, Koroa? Ouro is your closest junior, isn’t he?”
“He is.”
Koroa nodded briefly.
Koroa and Ouro had once been in the same party—that was before Koroa let it go, a well-known fact at the academy.
In the first place, Deuza Demo Aural, the party Ouro now led, had originally been founded by Koroa, with Koroa himself as the leader. When Koroa broke multiple academy records with his achievements, Ouro was already a member of that party.
That was why Ouro was considered the adventurer most influenced by Koroa.
Their fighting styles differed, but Ouro had been the one Koroa cherished most—the only person he could call a true disciple.
“Then how do you feel about losing to him?”
“I won’t deny that part of me is pleased. I always had an eye on him—he was outstanding as an adventurer. I believed he would become great someday. But right now… what I feel is simply frustration. I think my recent lukewarm adventures caused this result. I don’t intend to let Ouro surpass me as an adventurer just yet.”
“I see.”
Corvo smiled softly.
“What about you, Corvo? Ameisha was once in your party, wasn’t she?”
“Yeah. She was.”
Corvo nodded.
“So, how do you feel? Are you frustrated that your junior beat you?”
“…I wonder.”
Corvo gave a faint smile.
“To me, Ameisha wasn’t just a student. She was an important colleague. You know that my old party had only three people, including me and Ameisha, right? Even back then, she was already performing exceptionally well despite her youth. I owe a lot of my success to her talent. So even if I lost, I’m not really upset. That girl had that level of ability from the very beginning.”
He said that with a weary, powerless smile.
Everything he said was sincere.
Ameisha, in Corvo’s view, was one of the most talented adventurers he knew.
She wasn’t all-around exceptional like Iris, but she possessed a Gift-focused talent. Its destructive power—when conditions lined up—was enough to take down even a “stray” in a single blow. In fact, he’d heard she was the first to arrive to fight the Hundred-Armed Knight.
With talent like that, Corvo couldn’t bring himself to say she lacked ability.
“…That might be true,” Koroa agreed with a deep nod.
He, too, acknowledged Ameisha’s strength. In terms of pure skill as a Gift-user, he believed she was among the best in the academy. He had assumed that, because she specialized completely in her Gift, she would be weakest in solo adventuring—but Ameisha had just proven that with her Gift alone, she could dive into a dungeon without trouble.
Still, Koroa thought, Gift-users of her caliber were extraordinarily rare. That was also why she was precious.
“But from what I’ve heard, the one who actually controlled the flow of that adventure was Reaon, and the one who delivered both the initiative and the finishing blow was Nada. Well, I don’t think that’s strange at all, though. Before Aghiya disbanded, those two were always on the top in the party, after all.”
Corvo spoke in an even tone.
He recognized the pair’s strength. They were undeniably talented adventurers.
“Iris, you’re the one who raised those two. I don’t think they have the kind of talent Ameisha or Ouro have. Of course, they’re also below the three of us. That’s why I’ve always wondered—why did you choose to train them?”
Reaon may have an excellent Ability now, but he awakened it late by adventurer standards—in his fourth year at Larva Academy. By then, he was already part of Aghiya, and both he and Nada had low evaluations within the academy. Koroa remembered that clearly.
And as for Nada, he still hadn’t awakened an Ability or a Gift at all. If Koroa had been the mentor, he would have abandoned him long ago.
“They’re interesting, that’s all. There’s no other reason.”
Iris laughed as she downed some white wine.
“Interesting?”
Koroa frowned.
“Yeah. They’ve both got a strong competitive streak, they each have their own reasons for diving into the dungeon, and talent or not, neither of them had any other path. That’s why I chose them.”
“That’s it?”
“Pretty much. See, I think those two are more like real adventurers than we are. Ameisha, Koroa, even you, Corvo—people like us had plenty of options to choose from, and we picked ‘adventurer’ from among them. But those two were different. Being an adventurer was their only path. So even when the party broke up, they had no choice but to keep going. That’s why they cling to it so fiercely. And I think that’s the most important thing for an adventurer.”
“…And pairing those two together?”
“They grow faster when they’re competing, right?”
“That’s the only reason?”
“There’s nothing more to it. I’ve been thinking… they might’ve already surpassed me. Both Nada and Reaon. I mean—back when Aghiya was together, the one who hunted the most strays was Nada.”
Iris said this with cheeks flushed from wine.
“I see. …Maybe so. Those two are really something…”
Corvo paused, then shifted the topic.
“By the way, Koroa—what are you going to do about things with Iris? You let Nada take the lead for this adventure, right?”
“…Yes. I’ve had a change of heart.”
Koroa said, tilting his glass.
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
Iris puffed her cheeks.
“Iris, I still desire you. That hasn’t changed. But… I don’t think I’ll pursue you the way I used to.”
“Why not?”
Corvo turned toward Koroa.
“Watching Nada and Reaon made me think. Yes, I want Iris. And if we were together, I believe we could go anywhere. But… is that truly what matters most? I’ve been questioning that.”
“You’re questioning it?”
“Yes. Nada and Reaon would undoubtedly rise higher if they stayed together. But they deliberately don’t. And still, their growth never stops. If anything, they might grow better by not being together.”
“That’s the conclusion you reached?”
“Mm. The best possible outcome isn’t always the right one. Watching those two, I realized—one person alone can go as far as they need to. No, sometimes they must go alone. Iris has things she can’t give up, and so do I. I don’t think either of us needs to bend. And just like this time, sometimes our adventures might overlap. I think… that’s enough.”
Koroa spoke slowly.
Iris listened, taking in each word like she was letting it sink in.
“You’ve changed, Koroa…”
On the other hand, Corvo was surprised. That those two had caused such a shift in Koroa’s mindset—despite the fact that at one point, Koroa had even called Nada and Reaon “talentless insects clinging to Iris.” Thinking back on that, Corvo almost felt like laughing. But before that, he decided to ask the other two about the last thing they had seen.
“By the way, you two remember what was in the room Nada entered, right?”
“Yes.”
“Mm.”
Both nodded.
“Right. No one went in. We didn’t have the leeway to. But we definitely remember it. Nada collapsed, unconscious, though we still don’t know why. And yet, what was in that room wasn’t a monster. It wasn’t a treasure either—it was a path leading downward.”
Corvo retraced his memories—of the dungeon they had seen together, excluding Nada. Tohe was supposed to be a dungeon with an endpoint, yet a new passage had appeared.
Now, it was gone.
The moment the seven of them left that room, an internal shift occurred, and the chamber where the Hundred-Armed Knight had stood closed entirely.
But the memory remained crystal clear.
“Yeah. And even the pit where we took down all those knights also looked like it continued downward,” Iris said, downing her glass of white wine.
“I informed the academy that Tohe still has a continuation, and an investigation was ordered. I even asked the headmaster directly. And the answer was just one thing—‘Keep it confidential.’ That was all.”
Koroa clicked his tongue and sipped his brandy.
“So basically, there’s another stage in the dungeon—one we don’t know about yet. How are we supposed to get there, I wonder? Just defeating that Hundred-Armed Knight was already pushing our juniors to their limit…”
Corvo tilted his head.
“Strangely enough, Nada and Reaon might reach it sooner than you or I.”
“In that case, we’d better step up. I thought there was nothing left for me to do at the academy… but it looks like something just showed up that I want to do.”
Corvo said this with a look of firm resolve.
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