5. Stampede

◆ ◆ ◆

There is a dungeon called 『The Labyrinth of Time’s Lament』 two days’ walk north of Dallas.

The Labyrinth of Time’s Lament was a dungeon that had yet to be cleared, but there are many other dungeons around the world that have yet to be explored.

This dungeon had a lot of users, and since the adventurers were properly thinning out the monsters on a daily basis, the possibility of a stampede should have been extremely low.

The maximum number of floors in the Labyrinth of Time’s Lament is 45 at the moment.

The shallow levels are relatively beginner-friendly, with goblins, hobgoblins, and slimes appearing.

As you move further into the levels, orcs and ogres appear, and the enemies become stronger and stronger. Steadily and slowly attacking the place was helping adventurers to successfully build their skills.

There is a boss room on every tenth floor, with the tenth floor boss being the goblin leader, the twentieth floor being the orc leader, the thirtieth floor being the ogre leader, and the fortieth floor being the chimera.

And now, monsters were crawling out from the labyrinth of lament.

The last time a stampede occurred was 120 years ago. The scene was unfolding in a way that no one’s brain would immediately understand or want to understand.

The four members of 『Sasaraka』, a mid-level B-rank adventuring party that is mainly active in Dallas, were on their way to the Labyrinth of Time’s Lament on this day.

When they reached the plains, only a day’s distance away from the dungeon, all the party members who saw the far side of the plains stood still for a while in utter amazement.

Then they managed to reboot their brains and realized that a stampede had occurred, and they ran to the adventurer’s guild in Dallas, using their physical enhancements to the limit.

◇ ◇ ◇

On this day, the Adventurer’s Guild was crowded with adventurers, travelers trying to get information, merchants, nobles, and all sorts of other people.

The reason for this is the information from the members of 『Sasaraka』 who came to report to the Adventurer’s Guild yesterday.

Currently, the guild was writing to the lord with the information they had sorted out, while making arrangements to send an urgent request.

Emergency requests are almost compulsory for adventurers of C rank or higher to participate in. If you have no choice but to refuse, you must pay a fine of 10 platinum coins.

Adventurers of D rank or lower are also allowed to participate, though at their own risk.

After all preparations are complete, the guild master sounds the alarm twice with the special alarm tool that is installed in every adventurer’s guild in this world.

This magic tool has been specially processed to deliver alarms to a radius of 100 kilometers.

When the alarm sounds, citizens evacuate and adventurers gather at the adventurer’s guild.

After these two alarms, one more similar alarm would sound. This is the same alarm from the lord’s house, urging citizens to evacuate, but the guards and the lord’s private army gather in the square near the lord’s house.

◆ ◆ ◆

When I heard the report from Galwin and the incomprehensible alarm, I couldn’t understand anything.

I looked over at Dan, Sarah, and Airi, each of them reacting in their own way.

Dan looked annoyed and reluctant, and Sarah looked shocked and pale.

Airi, like me, didn’t seem to fully understand what was going on.

Dan says angrily and hatefully, as if he is very angry.

「No way, Stampede!」

Sarah asked everyone, not hiding her uneasy look.

「What’s everyone going to do? I think we all have to take emergency requests because of our rank. …… I’m not retired either, so I need to go to the guild.」
「Okay, listen up, everybody.」

Dan, with power in his eyes and a serious expression on his face, spoke to all of them.

I looked at Dan, judging from his demeanor that this was an important conversation, and so did everyone else.

Then we listened to Dan.

The story was that Alfred had demanded Sarah as his wife, and that Dan had been looking for a solution to this unreasonable selfishness, but had been having trouble finding one.

He thought that this stampede would be a turning point in a way, and he explained it now.

After hearing the explanation, she realized the reason for Dan’s recent strange behavior and felt the pain of his love for his family, so she cried and apologized to Dan and hugged him.

Dan hugged Sarah and began to talk to her, 「I have a proposal」.

「You’ll have to visit the Adventurer’s Guild…… to see how big it is first. However, we’ll have to solve Alfred’s case anyway, but now we should be able to get out of the city without any problems. During the Stampede, citizens will be evacuated and I don’t think the gatekeepers will be functioning. I don’t think they’d let an adventurer with an urgent request out of the city.」

Dan broke off there, and after a short pause, he opened his mouth again.

「And when the stampede is over, my family and I will leave the city and head for the capital of the neighbouring Midogal Kingdom, but since we can’t all go to the adventurer’s guild together, leaving Louis and Airi in their current situation, I need a favour from …… Lisa.」

Lisa didn’t expect to be asked a favour here, and was a little surprised, but quickly calmed down and encouraged him to continue.

「What?」
「I want you to take Louis and Airi ahead of you to the capital of Midogal Kingdom. Of course we’ll pay the fine for avoiding the urgent request, please!」

Dan said, and bowed to Lisa.

Lisa put her fingers to her chin and seemed to be thinking about what she had just asked for.

Then, after a while, she opens her mouth with a look of determination on her face.

「All right! In return, you must all come to Midogal without fail! I won’t forgive you if you don’t!」

Hearing these words, Dan raised his head, took out a bag of gold coins from his magic pouch, checked the contents, and handed it to Lisa.

「That solves that! There are eighteen white gold coins in this bag. Ten of them will be used to go to the guild once more to avoid urgent requests, and the remaining eight will be used for the three of you to travel. Also, if there are any items that you need for the trip that you are missing, you can take them out of this house, just put them in the magic pouch and take them with you. We’ll catch up later, I promise! What about Galwin?」
「What? Don’t ask me the obvious, okay? If that’s what happened to Dan and Sarah, I’m leaving Dallas too! When this stampede is over, I’m coming with you two to the Midogal Kingdom. When we get there, let’s take on some more requests together! There are probably some dungeons we haven’t been to yet!」
「Lisa, take care of Louis and Airi. Keep them both safe.」
「I know! I know! He’s Sarah’s precious, precious child! And don’t worry about Airi.」
「Thank you. We’ll catch up.」

In the midst of all this, my mind was more occupied with anger at Alfred than with the danger of the stampede.

But right now, there’s nothing I can do. I was frustrated with myself for not being able to do …… anything when I was getting so strong.

《12 Monster Banquet Party Stampede》

When they arrived at the Adventurer’s Guild, Dan, Sarah, Galwin, and Lisa waded through the crowd and read the urgent requests posted on the temporary bulletin board.

【Emergency Request】
・Adventurers of Adventurer Rank C or higher should respond to the stampede as an emergency request.
・Adventurers of rank D and below are free to participate at their own risk.
・Adventurers who wish to avoid urgent requests must pay 10 platinum coins.
・The scale of the stampede from the Labyrinth of Lament at this time would be about 500 demons.
・Adventurers who have received this urgent request are requested to go out of the north gate of Dallas and take down the enemy from the northeast direction.
※The Lord’s private army and guards are in charge of the northwest sector.
・The rewards are determined by the number of monsters each person has defeated, as shown on the guild card.

When she finished reading the content, Lisa said a few words to the other three, then offered the guild receptionist to avoid an urgent request, handed her 10 platinum coins, and hurried out of the guild.

The three of them who remained looked at each other and ran towards the north gate in high spirits.

The three of them didn’t notice that whoever was watching them was in contact with someone else.

◇ ◇ ◇

Louis and Airi were waiting for Lisa’s return in the garden of their house.

Louis had a bad feeling, but he knew he couldn’t do anything about it, so he forced himself to turn his attention to Airi to change that thought.

She was also restless and anxious, and she was soaking it up.

Hoping to alleviate Airi’s anxiety, Louis held her hand and encouraged her.

It was painful when Airi forced herself to smile at him.

As he was doing this, he saw Lisa running towards him. Louis and Airi joined her, and they hurried to the south gate.

And so, without any problems, the three of them were able to escape Dallas.

◇ ◇ ◇

Dan, Sarah, and Galwin left through the north gate and headed northeast, arriving at the place where the adventurers were gathering.

In their vicinity, a considerable number of adventurers were carrying weapons with tense faces. There were probably 500 adventurers who had gathered for the emergency request. A group of monsters were camped out in front of their gaze.

The most common type of monster pack seems to be the goblin species.

Goblin leaders, goblin mages, goblin generals, goblin knights, goblin lords, and other higher species were about to pounce.

There are also other monsters of various orcs and ogres.

The three of them turned their gaze toward the direction of the Lord’s private army to the west.

The lord’s private army has gathered to protect the city of Dallas as well as adventurers who have received emergency requests. The number of those people would be as many as two thousand.

「Looks like we got quite a turnout, huh?」

Dan spoke with a tone of voice that showed a little joy.

「I guess. I think we can suppress this without any problem. However, we are likely to take quite a bit of damage taking them out……」

Galwin agrees with Dan.

「Now we just have to figure out when to get out of here. ……」

Sarah seems to be thinking about getting out safely anyway.

「It’s a shame to waste the materials from the monsters we defeated, but we have more important things to do right now than that!」
「All right! Don’t you dare die!」

Dan called out to Sarah and Galwin, probably to get them fired up.

Galwin and Sarah responded.

「Of course I will not die!」
「Yeah, I’m not going to be killed by a monster like thatー!」

Dan then beckoned to them and began to whisper and discuss the escape plan.

◇ ◇ ◇

At the Lord’s private army camp, someone was carefully watching the eastern side where the adventurers were.

Alfred von Windsor is now a young man of 20.

He’s always had a thing for older women, and when he happened to see Sarah on the street about a month ago, he told everyone close to him that he was determined to get her. 『I’m going to get my hands on that woman no matter what!』

A man approached Alfred and opened his mouth with a disgusting smile on his face.

「Alfred-sama, I’ve just received word from my messenger. They are about to arrive – or have already arrived, he said. It was a good thing we had the Adventurers’ Guild watching over them for us.」
「Well, thank you for the report. It was a precautionary order, but it seemed to have helped. And now we know when they’re coming to us.」
「However, our information suggests that one of their party members, an elf, has left the Adventurer’s Guild and is headed elsewhere. How may I serve you?」

When the man asked him about it, Alfred looked thoughtful and said bluntly.

「Hmph. I have no interest in the elf. The only one I’m interested in is …… Sarah. More importantly, what’s going on at the front?」
「Ha, no problems. We have already infiltrated the adventurers’ side with a very skilled assassin known as Kira. If it’s her, she will definitely get the job done.」
「Hmm, that’s good. I can’t wait to kill Dan and take Sarah away from him. I had two days left until the deadline that I gave the man. …… Unfortunately, I’m not one to miss an opportunity this good.」

Alfred said with a vulgar smile on his face.

◇ ◇ ◇

And so the battle begins, with all sorts of speculation and confusion.

「Okay, Galwin, Sarah, let’s go!」
「Yeah!」
「Yes!」

From the east, not only Dan and his team, but also 500 adventurers, and from the west, the Lord’s private army went to face the monsters.

Galwin uses his shield to block the arrows flying from the goblin archer.

With Galwin in the lead and Dan diagonally behind him, Sarah positioned herself in the rear guard further away and fired a series of magic shots.

「Hey! That attack won’t work!」
「I’m not done yet!」
「Great fire, pierce the enemy!【Fire Arrow】！」

Galwin swung his one-handed sword, slashing at more and more goblins as they came towards him.

Dan uses his one-handed axe to slash through the monsters that Galwin’s attacks miss, while Sarah uses her magic to preferentially kill monsters that attack from a distance, such as goblin archers and goblin mages.

「I’ll use wide area magic! Dan! Galwin! Follow me!」
「Yeah!」
「I’m not letting any of them through!」

After calling out to them, Sarah began to focus her consciousness while manipulating her magic. After a while, when enough magic power was gathered, she activated a wide area magic.

「Come, conflagration, now manifest! Let us burn in the fires of hell!【Hellburning】！」

Sarah’s magic caused about a hundred goblins to burst into flames and scream.

「「「「GUGYAAAA」」」」

The battle lasted for about two hours, and the number of monsters had dwindled considerably, but the adventurers had also suffered some damage.

However, Galwin, Dan, and Sarah had used potions as soon as anything happened, so they incurred no noticeable damage yet.

「Fuu, we have to slow the pace down a little. We’ll have to start thinking about when to leave.」

Dan suggested to them, and Galwin, looking tired, teased Dan.

「Dan is already exhausted, he has gone sloppy, haahahah」

From his tone, we could tell that he was joking and trying not to let us know how tired he was.

In response to Galwin, Dan said, 「Yeah, that’s right. Should I leave all the rest to Galwin?」 he retorted.

「That’s enough joking around for both of you! I wanted to take a break, but I guess I can’t say that. Here comes the Ogre General!」

The Ogre General is an A-rank monster that a party of A-rank adventurers can defeat without much difficulty.

But two hours had already passed since the battle began, and all the adventurers, including Galwin, Dan, and Sarah, were exhausted. Also, Sarah hadn’t been in a battle in a long time.

For those reasons, the three of them clearly had a hard time.

However, as expected of A-rank adventurers, they gradually began to overwhelm the Ogre General.

Galwin defended against the Ogre General’s attack with his shield, and while the opponent wobbled in reaction, Dan swung his one-handed sword down at the Ogre General’s neck.

All three of us thought that the Ogre General’s head would fly through the air ―― and at that moment, it did.

――What waited in the air…――

It was Dan’s head. ……

《13 The Day Dallas Disappeared》

I ――Sarah ―― saw an unbelievable sight in front of me ……

You’ve been holding off the stampede this long, haven’t you? When this stampede is over, aren’t you going to say to me, 『Sarah, you did a great job?』 Why is Dan’s head flying through the air? Right? Right?!

The moment I realized that it was my husband’s head that was flying in the air ―― I felt as if the world stopped time.

I’m sure it was the same for Galwin. He stopped moving.

At the same time that Dan’s head fell to the ground after being flung through the air by someone’s attack, I saw the sight of the axe that the Ogre General had swung down and was right in front of Galwin.

Earlier, the head of my beloved flew through the air, and now my friend’s face is sliced in half and flying through the air. ……

「Nooooooooooooooo!!!」

I didn’t know what was going on anymore, and found myself screaming with all my might.

I don’t understand why this is happening to me!

Hey, can someone tell me what’s going on?

What happened just now?

What the hell is going on?

Wasn’t that the part where Dan decapitated the Ogre General?

So why is Dan’s head lying on the ground, separated from his torso?

Hey, please, Dan, wake up now, okay?

Why is Galwin lying on the ground too?

Why don’t you wake up, Galwin?

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

Is it a dream that they are lying on the ground?

Or is it reality? I don’t want this reality, I don’t need it. ……

I’m …… what the hell am I supposed to do? Tell me, Dan …… Louis ……

And then my consciousness was cut off――