Since everyone had managed to eat a decent meal, nobody lacked motivation to explore.
After entering the dungeon, all they could see at first were old, damaged bricks and crumbling stonework.
Oddly enough, none of the corridors themselves had collapsed.
[Yakumo: I’ve explored dungeons in games countless times, but I never imagined I’d actually get to explore one in person someday.]
[Shu: Be careful. Even if death is not permanent for you, you must not become careless.]
[Furina: I want to watch the livestream! Exploring a dungeon sounds fun, doesn’t it?]
[Eriri: Um… me too…]
Eriri felt slightly awkward.
Ever since joining the chat group, she had been zoning out during class more and more often.
Whenever she started chatting, the conversation tended to go on forever.
As a result…
She had completely forgotten everything the teacher had just explained.
But that was fine.
After class, she could simply open the chat group, stop time, and study the material herself.
As long as Yakumo remained in his current world, her time-stop function would apparently never stop working.[Eriri: I’ve been keeping the chat group open while studying magic lately, but I’m still making zero progress. Don’t tell me ordinary people just can’t use this stuff?]
It wasn’t unreasonable for Eriri to wonder.
If the time she’d spent inside stopped time was included, she had actually devoted quite a lot of effort to learning magic.
Yet even now, she still hadn’t managed to cultivate any mana at all.
It was starting to discourage her.
[Furina: H-Huh? But I succeeded.]
Furina’s words struck Eriri like another heavy blow.
It was true.
Furina could already use magic, which proved that the material Yakumo had uploaded to the group wasn’t fake.
[Eriri: Is my talent for magic really that terrible?]
[Yakumo: Maybe it has something to do with your world being an ordinary, mundane world. Cultivating something supernatural in a world where the supernatural doesn’t exist might naturally be much harder than doing it elsewhere.]
For now, that was only Yakumo’s best guess.
He didn’t know whether different worlds truly possessed different upper and lower limits when it came to supernatural phenomena.
But he had to admit that the theory seemed plausible.
In a world without any supernatural foundation, coming into contact with the supernatural might simply be extraordinarily difficult.
[Yakumo: But Fufu already proved the cultivation method itself works. So in your case, Eriri, you’ll probably just have to grind it out with time.]
[Yakumo: You’ve got the chat group now, so you won’t age while doing it anyway. At least you don’t have to worry about running out of time.]
[Eriri: I know, but… Aaaagh! Suddenly I’m getting really irritated!]
[Yakumo: Then go smack Tomoya around again. You’re already used to whipping him with your twin tails anyway.]
[Eriri: No!]
Huh?
Seeing Eriri answer with an almost immediate “No,” Yakumo froze for a moment.
This was Eriri, the girl who valued her status as Tomoya’s childhood friend more than almost anything. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
And she had rejected the idea instantly?
[Eriri: I didn’t expect the stuff from the book to actually start happening. Tomoya came to ask me and that fat woman to join him.]
[Eriri: Seriously, he showed up with something that barely even qualifies as a project proposal, let alone an outline. Just thinking about how hard I worked to help him in that story makes me angry!]
[Eriri: And what’s even worse is that he’s the project leader, yet he has absolutely no idea how to manage the team!]
What truly angered Eriri wasn’t simply that she helped Tomoya only for him to eventually choose someone else.
What bothered her was that Tomoya, as the person who proposed the entire project and the central figure holding the group together, had absolutely no control over the overall situation.
A leader who couldn’t coordinate their team was dangerous.
The group had originally formed around Tomoya in the first place.
The reason everyone gathered together was actually very simple.
Every member had some degree of personal affection toward him.
If, after gathering them together, Tomoya had clearly explained everything, coordinated the group properly, and assigned everyone appropriate responsibilities, there wouldn’t have been much of a problem.
But he very clearly hadn’t done that.
After Tomoya approached her, Eriri had actually tried talking to him about it.
Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to correct anything.
Eriri wasn’t even sure whether he’d actually listened.
Because she desperately wanted to avoid following the path laid out in the novel, Eriri had continued refusing Tomoya’s invitation unless he showed some genuine change.
Unfortunately, Tomoya was still caught up in his excitement.
He hadn’t even realized what Eriri had been trying to tell him.
The more that happened, the more disappointed Eriri became in him.
She had reached the point where she didn’t even particularly want to see him.
At the very least, both of them needed some time to calm down and think.
Eriri felt that she probably needed to think carefully too.
Whatever happened, she absolutely did not want to repeat the same path as her novel counterpart.
Every time she remembered Yakumo joking that she’d “gone full Eriri,” her teeth clenched in irritation.
[Yakumo: All right, all right. I’ve got the livestream running now. The dungeon is pretty dark, though, so you’ll have to make do with what you can see.]
Yakumo activated the group livestream.
The picture really was fairly dim.
Fortunately, torches around the dungeon provided enough light to make things visible.
Furina had already prepared tea and snacks and was ready to properly enjoy the adventure.
Ever since joining the chat group and being able to talk with everyone every day, her mood had improved considerably.
At least inside the group, she never needed to worry too much about what she said.
Having people she could confide in had eased a significant portion of the pressure she’d carried for so long.
And perhaps more people would join the group in the future.
Neuvillette, meanwhile, had noticed that Furina had been acting strangely lately.
She still attended her performances on schedule.
But compared to her former theatrical and exaggerated behavior, Furina had somehow become noticeably calmer.
She no longer made a commotion over everything.
Once her daily work was finished, she simply sat quietly with a book in her hands while eating pastries.
Unfortunately, Neuvillette couldn’t see the chat group.
The book Furina held was merely a disguise she used while chatting.
“Lady Furina, regarding the play you proposed about a Hero setting out to defeat the Demon King, have you completed the casting process?”
“Many people have applied recently. If screening does not begin soon, the number of applicants may become difficult to manage.”
“Huh? Oh! That.”
Without even looking up, Furina replied,
“Neuvillette, please have someone help narrow down the applicants.”
“I’m planning to hire this group for the long term. We may be able to turn it into an ongoing stage production.”
“Hah…”
Neuvillette sighed helplessly.
So it was another one of these situations.
Furina’s frequent bursts of inspiration had long since stopped surprising him.
“Oh, right.”
Furina added,
“Please find a few Melusines who can act as well.”
“Some of the characters require heights that ordinary humans simply can’t match.”
“Understood.”
Neuvillette responded,
“Then please provide the script and character profiles as soon as possible, Lady Furina.”
“Otherwise, it will be difficult to establish proper casting criteria.”
“I assume this is something you will not refuse to handle personally?”
“O-Of course!”
Furina answered with a slight stammer.
“I’ll have the script ready soon!”
Crap!
She’d only thought of putting on the play on a whim.
She hadn’t written a single word of the script yet!
What was she supposed to do?
Should she just use Yakumo’s party members as the character models?