Vampire Princess Arc 4 Episode 3: Labyrinth Exploration

It’s the first draft, so please excuse the weirdness. Will be updated again once I wake up. Happy New Year!

(Updated) I woke up and senpai has proofed most of this! Thanks, mado-senpai!

Chapter Three: Dungeon Exploration

Original Author’s Notes:

It’s been a while since I wrote with such vigour. I slightly regretted it.

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The western part of Amitia Republic, Ala is where Joey the adventurer should have been. More than that, the surprising part is that the girl Joey travelled with was a girl who is around his age.

What happened to Mia?! Was she replaced by a younger girl!?

While giving a look as if she’s about to ask a question, Joey and the girl exchanged looks, and then for some reason, Joey waved both hands in a panic.

“That’s wrong! Don’t misunderstand, there’s no such thing between us!…Let’s talk about it, ok?”

“Hm. If you have some sort of explanation, then let’s hear it.” This is also for Mia-san’s sake. And, if I might be mistaken about something, still, I don’t know if there was a misunderstanding.

“Teacher, it’s so cruel to say that there’s nothing between us~”

Perhaps she’s the type that’s shy with people she doesn’t know, objecting weakly while hiding behind Joey with a timid attitude.

But, what the hell is with this girl. Even though our heights are the same, she has a bodacious body. If I had to say it, it’s the breasts. What cup size is that?!

Perhaps a magician, she was dressed in a robe, the chest part of the short dress she wore beneath seemed as if it’s about to burst open. Even though she’s short, her chest is big. It is an outrageous figure if I have to say.

Ah right, it’s not that his response towards Mia-san was lacking, so it’s because of the boobs, isn’t it? The boobs are the reason! This vulgar person!

Instinctively jealous, I was provoked. Yep, as a friend I should frankly congratulate him but, because his partner has a large chest, it was difficult to accept it. Even I wondered and touch mine sometimes, I’m not satisfied with it. If this was going to happen like this, then maybe it would have been better to grow it more. Recently it increased by 2 centimeters – and, I control my train of thought which went to tomorrow and turned to look at Joey’s face.

Speaking of which, perhaps Chloe-san and Tengai were being considerate as they moved the chairs slightly away from where I was.  it became a composition where I sat on the sofa while Joey and she stood opposite me.

“Could you sit down for now. It must be tiring to keep looking upwards.”

At my urging, Joey sat in the opposite seat facing me in haste, the girl sat beside him and drew her body closer – sending me a provocative look with her upturned eyes, why did she do that. I thought it’s because it was the first time meeting me, but could I have done something that rubbed her wrong? …could it be, I looked at her breasts for too long she felt disgusted?  – For some reason, Joey separated his body a hand away from her, and in between them, he placed his unfastened sword and scabbard.

“Err, this girl is Fiore, an E rank adventurer that has only been in my party several times. She’s only a co-worker.”

Could it be really important for Joey, he repeated ‘only’ twice.

“…Nice… to meet you, I am Joey’s apprentice, Fiore.”

Somehow Fiore bowed in a formal way. Speaking of which, if she were to loosen her hair she would have light chestnut Semi-long twintails, her look is quite cute, she’s indeed what we call the girly type.

“Nice to meet you, I am Joey’s friend Hiyuki. – Teacher?”

Joey seems to be rather disappointed at my greetings, “Just friends haa…” – is it better if I said best buddies?Just like a bratty bully from somewhere (Doraemon) – Noticing my question, he’s knitting his brows as if I’m mistaken.

“This person had taken her own liberty to say that. Since when did I teach someone proudly?”

“Is that so? Recently [Work isn’t a game], or [Treasure your life], didn’t you give much splendid advice?”

“…did I say such things to you?”

………

 

“-Ahh… err, errm I recently heard it from the Guild Leader Gald (hiragana:Garudo) that you said it to the beginners.”

For now, I have to deceive him so I said it, and Joey grimaced.

“Ah, it’s that time I was with Hyuu. Sensei’s mouth spilled such things too lightly.”

My apologies, Guild Leader Gald , I had arbitrarily lowered your value in Joey’s eyes.

I gave my apologies from my heart, to him somewhere under the distant skies.

…or perhaps I should say, why is it I haven’t noticed it yet, seriously.

“Absolutely not! Teacher is my saviour. Because I’m following teacher as example, I’ve set my target to become a wonderful adventurer!”

This is her firm resolve huh? Fiore gave a powerful declaration, completely changed from her timid tone.

You’ve made him a goal huh. However, I think it’s better to stop.

And also, even though it’s fine to do whatever you want, don’t take a violent pose and sway exaggeratedly.

“Saviour… as a fellow adventurer in the same team, it’s natural to help each other. By chance at that time I was nearby, if it’s anyone else, they would have done the same.”

As if it’s a matter of course, Joey said it plainly, but in reality, in emergencies, there are not many people who are able to do it without hesitation.

But well, somehow or other I understood. It could be the suspension bridge effect, to admire Joey who saved her when she’s in a pinch, this booby – er, I mean, Fiore pushed him into becoming his student.

“I kind of know the circumstances, but why come here? Travelling?”

“No, as hired escort for the magical ship from Amitia, we came here. In this case, the requirement for the job was [People who can swim]. There weren’t many people who could swim in Ala, but, since I was born in the village near the beach, swimming became my forte. – And, this girl is a magician, so by just by being there, she is valuable.”

Hee, he unexpectedly has a special skill and a backbone.

“Hm? Then how are you going back? Will you be returning by escorting the magical ship?”

“No, it was only a one-way trip.” Joey replied easily as he shook his head.

“Then are you paying for your own way back? While I’m not sure what sort of ships there are, they are comparatively expensive aren’t they?”

“ In the worst case we’ll pay for our trip back, but I have an idea how I could go back.” Joey said confidently and laughed.

“What kind of idea?”

“The dungeons, of course. Recently, there were rumours of a dungeon with teleportation magic on the tenth floor. I’ve registered my magical signature, so moving to Ala’s magical teleportation portal and then back will be done skillfully, is what I thought.”

“Ah, I see.”

For me, by normally deciding to have a save point at the sky garden, using [Return] skill I could travel back easily, and I also have countless personal [teleportation rock] that has the Save & Return skill, so I was able to enjoy the use of teleportation magic, but in this world, OOparts have been removed, and occasionally there would be discovery of the remains of a magical teleportation portal.

Speaking of which, teleportation magic circles can’t be used once it coordinates are off the point, so the usual has been a pattern to create a city before the location of the magic square.

As a matter of course, any country would practice strict control of the use of the portal, for example, for movement between point A and point B, you would have to be there in person to register your magical signature and receive permission at point B.

And so, by paying a large sum of money at location A, you can move to location B, however, people who did not register, and those who get their permits cancelled, of course, could not warp to the place. To be trapped in the space interval, unable to return to the real world, so it is quite a high risk, high return method. But as Joey has finished the registration at Ala earlier, by using the magical teleportation circle which isn’t regulated by anyone in the dungeon, then it will be a way to return for free besides being able to return in an instant, it seems like a bargain.

With a look it does look like a great plan without exception but…

“Hey, Joey, do you have experience exploring dungeons?” as I was interested in that, I had to try and confirm it.

“I do, at Ala’s ancient ruins. I reached the 18th floor at that dungeon. However, I entered with a temporary team.”

I had destroyed the dungeon there with Four Evil Heavenly Kings, so the result from the large-scale magical remodelling, so even if you were a beginner, you wouldn’t die until the 20th layer, and those who are able to enter the next 10 layers are for professionals, veterans and top-class, and the difficulty increases. Speaking of which, to solo, Maroudo who was an S-grade adventurer too would be able to clear up to the 58th floor (the deepest layer is 70th).

There none other than the 18 floors, moreover, to not be able to go without forming a party, he really seems to be a complete novice.

I don’t really know the difficulty of the dungeon, these two probably can’t clear it.

“Maa, as expected, we’re not so dumb as to suddenly challenge a dungeon with only the two of us, so we thought to come here and find a party to enter the dungeon together but,”

Aah, as I thought they are not idiots.

“Because we didn’t meet their requirements, as of now we were talking about going there with just the two of us.”

Un, as I thought, they’re actually idiots.

“Well, I didn’t expect to meet Hiyuki here. Hiyuki too, why are you here?”

“I’m only here for a work-related meetup.”

“Ah, you even had to work here. It’s tough to be you.”

“Well, it’s about my country, so.”

Fiore who heard this had a dubious expression. With an aloof way, she pulled Joey’s sleeve and asked him in a soft voice. Well, as a vampire princess I could still overhear them.

“…Er, teacher, Hiyuki-san is the girlfriend Teacher’s been talking about all along right…? But no parts of her looked like a beast race’s and what did she mean her own country… ?”

I don’t mind if she directly asked me the questions, could it be her shyness is very strong? And, this girl, does she regularly use the third person pronoun? (Translator’s note: Girlfriend, kanojo, can be used to refer to a girl. Hiyuki thinks Fiore is referring to herself)

“Th- that’s wrong! Don’t jump to conclusions. And, about [My country] Hiyuki said, that’s because Hiyuki is much greater than Collard, an Emperor or Empress, she probably means that “This country is mine” when she said it.

“Huh? Is that so???” Even though she completely didn’t understand that explanation, I decided to let it rest since performing a Mito Komon play* doesn’t seem like a good idea, I’ll set it aside.

Even so, it’s alright that Joey has the intention to enter the dungeon with vigour, but I won’t be able to sleep well knowing that the big breasted- err, girl in front of me would be a victim. For one, it would hurt a man’s pride ( I abandoned the body a long time ago, but it’s kind of a mental thing)

Since the first 10 floors will probably be easy to conquer, it’s not bad to help out a little.

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Author’s Notes: Fiore’s personality was already written as an introvert, so it was difficult (to write her).

 

Translation notes (added on 21 January)

• Mito Komon (or their English wiki page) was mentioned in this chapter, but since I wasn’t sure what sort of historical play it was, I translated as I understood within the context and removed the mention of the historical drama earlier. A little later I noticed I misunderstood the usage, so I have updated to reflect senpai’s comment.