That World of Otome Games is Tough for Us - Volume 4 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Leon and Marie’s Dungeon Escapades

AFTER WE SET OFF, we took our time getting through the dungeon’s first floors. The entrance was large and cavernous, but about midway down, it became a series of carefully hollowed tunnels. The layout made navigation easy. Magic stones protruded from the walls and ceilings, emitting faint light that illuminated our surroundings despite us being underground. It wasn’t quite bright enough to read a map, though, which was why I needed a lantern. Marie held it as I guided us forward, map in hand. It was much easier to read the map that way.

I belted out directions to the group. “We turn left at the next fork!”

The male students responded with disparate grunts and mumbled “all right”s. Most weren’t taking this too seriously yet, since we weren’t very deep in. Some even engaged in casual conversation.

“Escort duties for the goddesses are assigned by round robin, right?”

“Yep. I’m anxious to get my turn. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to save one of them.”

“If we got ambushed on escort duty, wouldn’t it be awesome?”

They were obviously fantasizing, hoping to play the knight in shining armor and win the girls’ hearts. I didn’t bother scolding them for that, though.

Marie puffed her cheeks, displeased. “Do I seriously have to keep listening to these sad, deluded fantasies? It’s annoying.”

Oof. She didn’t have to call them sad and deluded. A guy was entitled to fantasize a little, right? Especially since marriage was on the line—and to someone who wasn’t absolutely horrible.

“Give them a break,” I said. “They’re desperate.”

“Desperate? They’re way too flippant about this.”

She had a point. We’d encountered a number of monsters, but the guys still weren’t taking this seriously.

“Well, they’re probably more relaxed because we’ve got third-years along,” I suggested with a half-shrug. My gaze wandered to Lucle, who stood at the front of the third-years accompanying us. He was being vigilant yet navigating the passages with the familiarity of someone who’d been here countless times. He was definitely a veteran; he didn’t seem the least bit nervous.

Marie was unconvinced. “I still don’t think we should drop our guard. A forest is inhabited by the most fearsome of beasts. Even seasoned hunters are at risk of losing their lives if they aren’t careful.” She knew that from firsthand experience. It was probably why she thought none of us were taking this seriously enough.

Personally, though, I was offended. “How many times do you think guys from our school have to trek through this dungeon before they finally graduate?” I huffed at her.

“I understand that. However familiar they are with this place, though, it doesn’t excuse their attitude.”

I was still only a first-year, but I’d come here repeatedly with Daniel and Raymond. Although some eccentrics took such pride in their lineage as adventurers that they insisted on visiting the dungeon on their days off, it was poor barons’ sons who frequented this place—all for financial purposes.

“Know where my group spends the most time? On this dungeon’s middle floors,” I told Marie matter-of-factly.

She quirked a brow at me. “Is that supposed to be impressive or something?”

I let out a long, drawn-out sigh, then reached over and took the lantern from her, raising it for a better look at our surroundings. “Even third-years only have to poke their heads into the middle floors for their school requirement, but my group needs to delve deeper still to find magic stones and metals to take home and sell.”

It was easy to traverse the dungeon from the entrance to the middle floors, and magic stones and metals were plentiful. But that also meant that people generally made off with those things quickly, and only slim pickings were left for the rest of us. So if a student really wanted to make some cash, they had to go deeper in. The magic stones on the lower floors were of a much higher purity. Even metals were more abundant and of better quality, snagging exorbitant prices on the market.

Marie didn’t understand our plight. I’d given her an allowance to cover her daily expenses pretty quickly, so she didn’t need to dungeon-dive.

“Oh—you’re right,” she said, her face brightening with that realization. “I remember it was like that in the game, too.”

It was the same in any video game: The deeper you went, the better the loot you found.

“Still, I don’t understand how metals grow in a dungeon,” I said, voicing something that had nagged at me for a long time. “And they grow back not long after you take them. This really is like a video game.” It was easy to forget that we were stuck in an otome game, but this dungeon’s lack of realism served as a stark reminder.

Marie scanned the dungeon’s interior. “I always pictured the dungeon as being like a mining shaft, and I guess it kind of is, when you put it like that.”

“More or less. It’s where Holfort gets a lot of necessary resources. Makes it really convenient for them.” Without the dungeon and all the bounty it provided, Holfort wouldn’t be quite so powerful. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the kingdom might not exist at all in that case. We’d learned as much in class.

Marie’s eyes lit up. “Does that mean you can get filthy rich if you find really good resources?” Her expression turned eerie and calculating.

I sighed at her, exasperated. “What good would that do us at this point?”

“A girl can dream, can’t she?”

“A girl doesn’t need to,” I reminded her. We had Luxion: We’d never want for food, clothes, or shelter, so we didn’t require a dungeon. And—not that I had any intention of doing so—I could take over the world with Luxion’s power if I desired.

This time, it was Marie’s turn to be exasperated with me. “Try to have a little more ambition. You’re too apathetic.”

“And you’re too greedy,” I shot back.

“What do you mean by that?” she demanded, glaring at me.

“I seem to recall someone attempting to seduce Julius and his gang for money and status. Who could that have been?” I gave her a look of feigned confusion, as if struggling to remember.

She gritted her teeth and turned away. Irritated as she was, she couldn’t say anything in her own defense. It felt pretty good to have one-upped her.

When I turned my attention back to our raiding party, I noticed that Lucle and the other third-years had frozen in place and were looking back at me. Lucle raised his hand, signaling me, so I turned back to the rest of the group. “Everyone stop here for a moment,” I ordered.

Lucle made his way over. “We can sense monsters ahead,” he said. “There’s quite a few of them. Want to detour around them?” He and the other third-years had more experience in the dungeon than we did, and they had honed their instincts.

“I don’t sense anything,” I said, confused.

“Oh, you’ll get to the point where you can soon enough,” Lucle assured me with a wry grin. “So what’ll we do? Detour? Or march straight ahead?”

His confidence that my instincts would eventually be on the same level as his was significant—as though those were an inevitable skill that all us poor barons’ sons would have to develop if we wanted to survive. It was actually kind of depressing. But leaving that aside, since I was the group’s leader, I had to make a decision.

“I guess if we can detour around them, we should. Wearing ourselves out this soon fighting would be a waste, since we’ve still got a long way to go,” I said.

While I conferred with Lucle, Raymond had listened quietly, but at this point his hand abruptly shot up. “I think we should march straight ahead!”

I glanced at him. His attention was focused on Ellie. Since we’d stopped moving, she had whipped out a book and was reading. She sure was a dedicated bookworm to bring a book all the way into a dungeon to sneak in extra reading time. Betty was preoccupied drawing pictures in the dirt, and Cynthia was slumped over on one of the male students, nodding off. The lucky guy was over the moon at their close physical proximity, but the guys around him had murder in their eyes.

Ugh. I already hate this raiding party.

“And how come you’d like us to go straight ahead, Raymond?” I asked. I figured I already knew: He wanted to show off in front the girls. But Raymond was too intelligent to frame it that way, surely. He’d give me some clever, well-articulated reason.

“Beating monsters is the best way for us to show off.”

And here I thought you were smarter than this. Guess I was wrong about you. “No. You can show off later during our trip,” I told him firmly.

Daniel’s hand shot up. “Leader! I think we should consider our trip back and clear the way now, so it’s safer when we return!” Daniel had never struck me as the intelligent sort, but he made a good point this time—­although I knew his intentions were really the exact same as Raymond’s.

“You just want to show off, don’t you?” I said with a knowing look.

“Of course! The further in we move, the fewer opportunities we first-years will have. We need to take whatever chances we can get!”

Although the first-years frequented the dungeon during any vacations or holidays, there was still an insurmountable experience gap between us and the third-years. As we got deeper into the dungeon, it would be the second- and third-years’ time to shine. It wasn’t just that they were veterans in the field; they’d also been training much longer than we had.

Lucle chuckled warmly at us. “Ah ha ha! That’s not true. I’m sure you guys will have other opportunities…if you’re lucky.” He knew Daniel was right; otherwise, he wouldn’t have tacked on that last bit. 

Daniel, Raymond, and the other boys had caught on to that fact, too. They demanded even more vehemently that I provide them with their turn.

“Leon, please!” Raymond pleaded desperately. “Give us a shot!”

“Aren’t you worried that begging like that will make you look pretty pathetic in their eyes?”

“Oh, crap!” Realizing his mistake, Raymond whipped around to look at Ellie.

Ellie briefly glanced up from her book. She didn’t seem the least bit bothered, but the number of eyes on her appeared to make her a little uncomfortable, “Um…it doesn’t bother me,” she said. Raymond throwing a fit like a petulant child wasn’t a big deal to her, apparently.

Raymond’s eyes filled with tears. “Hear that, Leon? She’s so kind and understanding. If she were a normal female student at our school, she’d rake me over the coals for making a fool of myself.”

I pressed a hand over my mouth, trying to hold back my own emotions. I was on the verge of tears as well. “Raymond…”

He was right. Our other female schoolmates were so unforgiving that they’d disparage or ridicule us for showing the slightest vulnerability. It was so easy for me to picture it happening. The academy was truly hell on earth.

Other guys in the group were shedding some tears, too. I decided, for their sake, we’d better take the opportunity Raymond and Daniel suggested. “All right,” I said. “The first-years will take care of these beasts. We’ll show the girls what we can do!”

Raymond threw his arms around me. “Thank you, Leon! You may be an underhanded scumbag, but you’re still my friend!”

“Ha ha ha! I’ll remember you said that.” I laughed dryly before pinning him with a glare, but patted his back nonetheless.

Marie planted both hands on her hips and sighed at us all. “Just how twisted is your image of women?” She was evidently offended; as one of our female schoolmates, she couldn’t abide our negative stereotypes.

“If you actually hung out with those girls, you’d understand,” I told her, my arms still around Raymond.

Marie wrinkled her nose at me, even more irritated. “Well, sorry for not having more friends!” she spat.

That wasn’t what I’d said, but she seemed to select the most uncharitable interpretation of my words. It was true she didn’t have many friends, though. That was her own fault. The moment she started at the academy, she’d tried to sidle up to Julius and the other guys, which made the larger half of the female student population hate her guts. She did have some normal friends, like Brita and her two companions, but aside from them, I’d never seen Marie hang out much with other girls.

Together, Marie and I had solved a number of her outstanding issues. The problem was, she was still an odd woman out. That situation was of her own making. Under the circumstances, I was impressed that she’d managed to make the few friends she had, if anything. If she had to, she’d have no problem making it on her own in the world—that much I was sure of.

The entire time I was thinking that, I stared at Marie, which made her suspicious.

“What?” she snapped at me.

“Nothing. I was just thinking that you reap what you—”

Before I could finish, she threw a stone at me. It hit me square in the head.

***

Weapons drawn, the first-years got ready to charge into the chamber where the monsters were gathered. The upperclassmen called out after them.

“If it gets too dangerous, call us in for backup.”

“If you need us to, we’ll swoop in and save you.”

“Don’t let your egos get you injured!”

A battle like this was child’s play to all of them, but they’d at least agreed to stand back and watch, interfering only if absolutely necessary.

Daniel sneered, disgusted with their attitude. “They’ve got some nerve, looking down their noses at us.”

I checked my weapon over to ensure that I was prepped. “They have that right, given their superior experience. Remember, they’ve got a year or two on us, so they’ve spent a lot more time in these dungeons to pay for tea parties and presents.”

“Doesn’t the way they act get under your skin at all?” Daniel asked me.

“Nope. It’s just the way things are.”

It bothered him that I didn’t share his distaste. “Being engaged already must be nice,” he told me, scowling. “You don’t have to panic like the rest of us.” 

He was sulking, but there was no time to bicker among ourselves when we had monsters to fight. Choosing my words carefully, I responded, “You should be more grateful that someone like me—who already has it made in life—is willing to help a bunch of losers like you.” 

I’d been maybe a little too brutally honest. Soon all the first-years, including Daniel and Raymond, regarded me with animosity. Fully armed, they muttered to themselves.

“If Leon just happened to disappear on this trip, Miss Marie would be single again, right?”

“Nah. Don’t even think about it. If we tried to get rid of him here, we’d leave evidence.”

“Good point. If we were going to take care of him, we’d have to make sure we left no traces.”

Awfully concerning comments from people who were supposed to be my allies. I shrugged, shaking my head in disappointment at the lot of them. At least my antagonism had worked in that they were sufficiently fired up, all nervousness forgotten. Pleased at my successful tactic, I made one last check. “Come on, you losers—we first-years won’t have many chances in the spotlight. Ready to capitalize on this opportunity?”

Though thoroughly annoyed by my taunting, they nodded.

“Good. Move in!”

Those positioned in the vanguard swept forward. Those in the rear used magic to provide extra light for the rest of us. The monster horde in the cavern disappeared in puffs of black smoke, one monster after the other.

“Take this!” Daniel shouted, charging out in front, his weapon whipping through the air.

The enemy’s numbers were so great that I feared they’d soon surround him, but after the vanguard’s initial charge, Raymond and the others in the middle of our ranks set forth and began mopping up.

“I told you not to run in blindly!” Raymond groused at Daniel and the rest of the vanguard, his lip curled with dismay. “Pay a little thought to those of us trying to cover your backs!”

“More killing, less talking,” I told Raymond, slapping his back to usher him forward. “If you don’t move it, some of our guys’ll get injured.” 

I kept my focus on the monsters that broke away from their pack and tried to flank our vanguard. As leader, I didn’t need to dive headlong into battle, but hanging back and doing nothing would reflect poorly on me. I didn’t want the others complaining that I took the easy route and just gave orders instead of participating, but I limited the scope of my activities to the bare minimum. The others were preoccupied with trying to show off; as they did so, my job was to contribute what I could to keep them safe.

Thankfully, the monsters that broke away from the pack were fairly weak, so they weren’t too dangerous—though, given free rein, they’d likely have injured a few of our guys. I darted around our main force and dispatched stragglers with my sword. As soon as one went down, I was scanning for my next prey. 

“That one there,” I murmured to myself. I targeted only those the other guys had missed, letting the rest of the group handle the stronger monsters in the middle of the chamber.

“Put your backs into it! Show those girls what you can do!” I bellowed at them.

Daniel didn’t turn back to look at me, but he shouted in response, “Enough from the peanut gallery—we’ve got this!”

***

As the first-years fought, Marie watched from the connecting tunnel. Her eyes followed Leon as he darted around the rest of the group. “He’s supposed to be the leader,” she grumbled. “What’s he doing fighting himself instead of handing out orders?” In her mind, issuing order was all a leader did. They didn’t actually get down and dirty with the rest of their group. To make matters worse, Leon was picking off small fry.

The upperclassmen didn’t seem to share Marie’s perspective, however. Lucle was actually impressed by Leon. “He’s supporting them so that they’ll have an easier time fighting. Just what I’d expect from someone who’s cleared a whole dungeon before.”

The other upperclassman nodded.

As much as it pleased Marie to hear Lucle praise him, she still couldn’t accept Leon taking such a minor role. “He can fight a lot better than this,” she grumbled.

Cynthia had somehow snuck up beside Marie. She snaked her arms around Marie’s waist, pressing her weight against the other girl and perching her chin on Marie’s shoulder.

“Ugh! Cynthia, you’re heavy!” Marie complained.

Cynthia followed her friend’s gaze and studied Leon. “That guy of yours is awfully clever. He knows exactly how to make everyone else’s job easier.” She was still acting as lazy as ever, given that she wouldn’t stand on her own, but something was different about her. She was assessing the boys’ fighting prowess very calmly and clearly.

That rattled Marie.

“You can tell?” Marie asked her friend suspiciously.

After a short pause, Cynthia replied, “More or less.” She turned her gaze from Leon to the rest of the boys. Once she’d surveyed them all, her attention jumped back to Leon. “He’s the type who shines most through strategy, rather than personal strength. If he took things a little more seriously, he could make a real name for himself.”

Whether Cynthia’s assessment was accurate was beside the point; Marie still swelled with pride at the praise of Leon, although she said skeptically, “I doubt he’d ever commit enough for that. He has no ambition for greater things. I don’t think he wants to make a name for himself.”

Leon never invested much effort in things. Marie had spent long enough with him to understand that about him. Where others would dedicate themselves in order to attain the best outcome in anything, Leon put in only enough energy for results that were satisfactory—above average. If that proved too difficult to manage, he might begrudgingly put in as little effort as possible to achieve the bare minimum. He never went beyond that.

Luxion was an incredibly advanced, powerful weapon, but even with that at his disposal, Leon lacked any inclination to exploit farther-reaching benefits. He used Luxion for irrelevant, trivial matters, of course. By and large, though, Leon was more interested in maintaining the status quo than anything.

Yet, despite those flaws, Cynthia seemed to think quite highly of Leon. “He’s contributing, yet letting everyone else take the credit without overshadowing them… I don’t see a problem. Marie, you’ve landed yourself a good man.”

“‘Landed’ him?” Marie scoffed. “I don’t like what you’re insinuating. He’s the one who fell for me first.”

“Ha ha!” Cynthia laughed. “He’s passionate, is he? He seems like such a cold fish, but I guess there’s some heat under all that.” It was unusual to see her in such high spirits.

“Forget about that,” Marie urged. She made a sweeping gesture at the other guys. “They’re the ones trying to catch your interest. Hasn’t a single one of them caught your eye?”

The men had ulterior motives on this journey, of course: They’d only agreed to participate because of Cynthia, Ellie, and Betty. Marie understood where they were coming from, though. All the academy’s male students were desperate to make a match.

“Nah. None of the guys has caught my interest,” Cynthia said. “But if you ever get tired of Leon, let me know. I’m happy to take him off your hands.”

“You’re seriously after Leon?!” Marie cried, eyes wide.

Cynthia snickered. “Kidding,” she said in a singsong voice. “I haven’t fallen so far that I’d mess with a guy my friend already claimed. In fact, I’m not interested in anyone.”

Flustered to realize that her friend had been teasing her, Marie blushed and shouted, “Try to have at least a little interest in them, would you?!”

***

As soon as they’d dispatched all the monsters, the first-years returned to the tunnel where Marie and the others waited. I found a spot by the wall to take my break, and Marie brought me a drink.

“Nice work out there,” she said. “You ran around an awful lot—how come you only took out small fry?” There was a cynical note in her voice.

Regardless of what she thought, I had my reasons. “The others would resent me if I stole their thunder, but if I didn’t help out with anything, they’d complain. I did exactly what I had to.” I knew how pissed some of them would’ve been if I’d outshone them. Doing the bare minimum was the best way to avoid their ire.

Marie frowned at me. “It’s exactly like Cynthia said.”

“What is?” I tilted my head.

Marie huffed out a breath. “Nothing.” She came to stand beside me, her gaze following mine. “By the way, how long do you think clearing all three requirements will take?”

The sudden change of subject caught me off guard. I took a moment to think, swallowing the water she’d offered me. “We probably haven’t even cleared the bar for first-years yet. And according to Lucle, reaching the requirements for upperclassmen is a pretty big pain. We may spend longer in this dungeon than we planned.”

Not even I could predict specifically when we’d return to the surface. There was no school today, but I didn’t think we’d make it back before lessons resumed. The professors might complain about our absence, but they’d let us off with a few makeup lessons, since we’d spent the time we missed in the dungeon. That was how the academy worked.

Marie’s nostrils flared. She blew out a breath, saying, “If Luxion was helping us, this’d be over in a snap.”

“I asked him,” I told her defensively, “but he refused. Said he was busy.”

When Luxion dismissed my orders to accompany us, I had frozen. I found myself thinking, Huh? Hold on—can he really just refuse to do what I ask? On the other hand, I had gotten a little too reliant on him lately.

“Anyway, let’s figure this out by ourselves,” I added. “That’s what everyone else has to do.”

“By ourselves, huh?” She eyed her three friends. They were capitalizing on this break by engaging in their favorite activities. I knew what she was thinking. They weren’t doing anything by themselves—they were relying on others to take care of things for them.

I shrugged. “There are exceptions to every rule. Don’t think too hard about it.”