The man who had shouted "sister" at Helen plainly shared her blood; one glance made that clear.
The same dull copper skin, and likewise hair bound back in a short tail.
Apart from sex, the one difference was that where Helen's eyes were golden, his carried a dull gray.
"Ah, Imeln. You would show up at this important moment of all times."
"You take the words out of my own mouth, sister. A match this violent with the colony's destruction ahead of us. And that last strike……!"
"Enough, enough! Fine, fine. I was in the wrong. All right? So drop the anger already."
"Hah, you truly are……."
The man called Imeln then stepped into the sparring hall under everyone's gaze.
"……You, whose name I do not know. My sister has been a nuisance to you. I hear you are a guest from outside."
"Well. It was a fairly refreshing experience as far as I'm concerned."
Not a trace of pretense showed in Yujin's face as he said it.
As though he had genuinely enjoyed that match, he even smacked his lips with a faintly regretful look.
Thinking the man before him was no more normal than his sister, Imeln turned his eyes back to her.
"Leave it at that and return to your place, sister."
"Tch. He acts like he's my wife."
"Say no such horrid thing!"
"Ugh."
Unable in the end to hold out against Imeln's nagging, Helen wiped the scrape on her cheek from the roll earlier with a fingertip, licked it, and said to Yujin:
"Another round if there's a chance?"
"You're welcome to it."
"Heh heh. I do like how fiery you are."
"Sister!"
"Ugh……."
And so Helen and Imeln left.
The eyes of the students who had been watching the match turned to Yujin, left there alone.
"Um, excuse me……."
"Which dungeon did you come from?"
"No, before that…… what is your name……?"
Feeling that interest, Yujin grinned as always and said:
"The seventy-second dungeon. Yujin, son of the Demon King Enoch."
Of course.
"The seventy-second dungeon?"
"Have you heard of it?"
"No, I didn't even know it existed."
For all his posturing, you couldn't find a student who knew of Enoch's dungeon if you washed out your eyes and searched.
Meanwhile.
"Sister. What on earth possessed you to fling yourself at that man?"
"I've been bored out of my mind since graduating. All the house does is meddle, telling me do this, do that. They only want me sitting and working."
"Even so, it was far too dangerous. Do you realize? Had you let that fly……."
"If it had been real combat rather than a match, I'd have been the one taken down. I nearly got a very large hole in my stomach."
"Hah…… fortunately you were aware of it."
Right before the finishing blow.
The ominous energy of magic power that had been gathering at the fingertips of the boy called Yujin.
It would have been an attack even Helen had no proper answer to.
Helen, who senses souls by instinct, had felt it clearly.
The souls she had subjugated were screaming, full of fear.
That is the scream a soul already endlessly close to death lets out when it faces true annihilation.
"How did he look to you?"
"I heard it was the seventy-second dungeon. I cannot imagine what sort of demon land it is. It has not shown itself to the outside once in five hundred years…… and I cannot at all believe that its official heir holds such a height."
"Wow, that's higher praise than you ever gave me."
"Even had you overcome your 'weakness,' sister, he would not have been an easy opponent."
At that Helen pushed out her lips and glared at Imeln.
"If not for you it would have been a fine experience."
"Do not say such things. The soul I saw in that man…… was already complete."
The Soul Devourer, Helen the Nether Wolf.
And her half-sibling, Imeln, possessed "eyes that see the rank of a soul."
Which let him perceive the overall limit of whoever he looked upon.
And the soul of the boy called Yujin, as Imeln observed it…….
"I never once imagined I would see a soul stronger than Father's…… and in a boy not yet ripened, at that."
Was a soul of a level nothing else could follow.
"Know that surviving today was a miracle, sister."
"Tch."
Imeln could not help laying that reproach on his sister, Helen.
***
Ah.
They say you feel the empty place once you've lost something.
I felt the difference keenly in reverse, once the empty place was filled.
"It's a dungeon nobody's heard of, but……."
"That's Helen the Nether Wolf. The brainless muscle monster."
"Her frame's on the slight side for a muscle monster, though?"
"Her strength isn't."
"That's true."
"Anyway, he went even with a woman like that."
"Could he have blocked that last strike?"
"Didn't you see? He was about to counter."
"But…… where is the seventy-second dungeon?"
Interest from all sides. And more interest.
I was never an attention seeker by nature.
If anything, before the regression the Empire's endless attention had more often been a nuisance.
But…….
About sixteen years.
A stretch of time spent unable to talk with anyone.
That's right.
I was starved for conversation!
And meeting people of this caliber in person stirred something else in me besides.
The tears blur my sight.
In any case, after a short self-introduction to the students showing interest, I headed down to the fourth basement level as arranged.
Attention is attention; the work I had to do was another matter.
Leaving the lingering buzz behind, I reached the fourth basement to find students making their final checks for the duty ahead.
"We meet again. You have come earlier than I expected."
The one who greeted me was Imeln, the man who had taken Helen away earlier.
From what I'd heard, he was related to her by blood.
I hadn't known at all that she had a younger brother.
Because the game hadn't made the slightest mention of him.
When I looked at him with an odd expression, Imeln smiled a little awkwardly and said:
"If you have any complaint about my interrupting the match earlier, I apologize for that part. But……."
"No, it isn't that. Different reason. More to the point, you have a different air from your sister."
"I hear that often. My sister is an easygoing sort by nature."
"Looks like you've had a hard time of it."
"Ahem…… In any case, I am glad to meet you. Somewhat belatedly: I am Imeln, eldest son of the eleventh Demon King, Lady Amelia. Above me is my sister Helen, whom you saw earlier."
"Yujin, son of Enoch, the Demon King of the seventy-second dungeon."
After one handshake with Imeln, with whom conversation had somehow opened up, I moved along with him.
"Because of the incident earlier, Yujin, you will not have heard the explanation of your duty properly."
"Roughly, I gathered I deal with the parasites coming up from below."
"Correct. But each team has an assigned zone. We patrol those zones in rotation on a set schedule."
With that, Imeln handed over the green cloth he'd had hanging at his waist and said:
"Whether coincidence or not, you have been placed on the same team as me."
"No wonder. You came up to me like you'd been waiting."
"I only learned of it myself after coming down. Ha ha."
Where we arrived, two other graduating-class students were waiting.
"Gather round. This is Yujin. He joins us as a member of Team Nine."
"Ah, so you're the one?"
"I just saw it! You're the guy who went wild with Imeln's sister!"
The other two students showed interest in me as well.
Their names were Henry and Grendel.
Demon Realm natives with fire and ice traits respectively.
"A Flame Spirit tribesman and an Ice Spirit tribesman going around together? That's a rare sight."
The two, one with faintly red skin and one with blue, seemed on good terms despite their races being opposites.
"Haha. It's a mutually complementary relationship."
"Mm-hm. The two of us become perfect when we're together."
Crossing arms with each other to show off their bond, the two looked full of energy.
"The two of them have ranged-type traits. I take the front line, and you, Yujin, will handle the parasites that try to approach them."
"That's reassuring!"
"A front-liner other than Imeln for once?"
"The formation is roughly set, so shall we move on to the real thing?"
"Are there parasites nearby?"
"It is about time they came up. I know the place where they have been appearing on a regular cycle lately."
"Good. Then there's no need to delay."
And so Team Nine, myself included, set off down the corridor together.
Exchanging brief greetings with graduating students along the way, we arrived before a spiral staircase much like the others I had seen.
The one difference being the dried, twisted bloodstains and scraps of demonic beast flesh scattered here and there.
"They are coming up just in time."
"Let's get ready!"
What appeared next, along with the cry particular to demonic beasts, was a chimera-form beast even I had never seen before.
SKRRRRR—!
Its lower body, made up of four legs, resembled an ant's, and its upper body, with four hook-like arms, was formed of a kobold's flesh.
"Now that's a novel combination."
"The beasts being raised within the academy fused as the Void eroded them. That is why every one of them takes such a grotesque form."
Henry and Grendel added that they had goosebumps all over when they first saw them.
It was certainly a startling sight the first time.
"Yujin. As this is your first battle, it would be best to watch from behind."
Less doubting my ability than wanting to show me their style first.
So I stepped back, and the fight began.
Henry and Grendel's fighting was easy to read: from range, each poured out attacks suited to his elemental trait.
Henry of the Flame Spirit tribe fired blazing flames from both fists.
Grendel of the Ice Spirit tribe summoned spears of ice and bound the enemy's legs.
Imeln, meanwhile, showed a stable style of fighting with sword and shield.
He parried what needed parrying, and when an opening showed, dealt a fatal wound without hesitation.
It wasn't long before the ant-form chimera fell to the cold floor.
"Well?"
"Our fighting style. Fiery, right?!"
"In this manner, I block the attacks and the two of them stab the openings. We have adopted the textbook approach."
"I don't see much room for me to step in."
"That is likely so. Until recently the beasts charged in packs, but of late their numbers have plummeted."
"Hmm……."
"You wear the face of someone who knows something."
"Because a colony slowing its movements isn't good news."
Hear it in passing and you might mistake it for the numbers dropping because enough of the ones sent outside had been dealt with.
It's the opposite, in fact.
Just as ants have scouting parties, if the ones sent out to search don't come back…….
"Then the colony concludes there's a threatening force outside, and starts preparing a full offensive."
"Oho. You know the nature of colonies well, for one who never studied at the academy. Correct. At present the colony is gathering its forces in one place in order to come up to the surface."
Especially since, as they'd said, many beasts had been bred underground for instructional purposes.
If those began massing, the entire basement could well turn into a monster den.
"But there is no need to worry on that count. The five graduates were carefully selected for exactly that reason."
"Hm. True enough."
Even setting Helen the Nether Wolf aside, the magic power I'd felt from the remaining four was more than enough to resolve a colony of this size.
Henry, though, seemed to think otherwise.
"Ugh, it's still a shame. Imeln, you could have gone down there too."
"Right. It was a chance to take proper credit."
"Hah…… what are you two suddenly going on about?"
"What, are we wrong? The fact is your sister flatly opposed you taking part."
"My combat ability must have been lacking."
"In pure combat power, sure! But not that search ability of yours."
"What disgrace is this, in front of a guest. Stop there, both of you."
"Ah……."
"Aw……."
Earlier the siblings had seemed to get along without ceremony.
Was there some conflict inside their house?
Not a matter for me to dig into, of course.
"……There is nothing wrong in my sister's argument. It is clearly a somewhat dangerous duty, and if physical harm came to us both, discord would arise in the matter of succession later."
A matter concerning the house after all.
Not something to be handled in front of a complete outsider like me.
The other two team members recognized that and only pushed out their lips, faces full of dissatisfaction.
"Besides, even without me, my sister's ability is more than enough to destroy the colony."
Unlike the attitude of the other two, Imeln's tone carried something close to conviction.
And in fact the duty proceeded over the following days without any great problem.
But four days later.
The situation changed abruptly.