Translator: Haruto.

“Walking around town sure brought back some memories…” I murmured to myself while lying down on the bed in my room.

“We were kind of broke back then so we even had to dive into the dungeon together.”

Dungeons are places infested with monsters where you can gather various materials. In order to earn our keep, we had to venture into one of them, collect those materials and sell them in town.

I close my eyes and begin reminiscing about the times those girls and I spent together twelve years ago when they were still no more than fifteen years old.

One day, in particular, comes to mind: the first time we headed to a dungeon together.

***

“Alize-san! I’ll take care of all the monsters, okay? You can just lay back and watch how I do it!” exclaimed Akane, the crimson-haired, tomboyish girl of the group, while giving me a thumbs-up inside the carriage that was taking us to the dungeon.

“Huh, you sure are confident even though you haven’t fought monsters yet.”

“Don’t worry! You’ve trained me well so I know I’ll be fine!” she declared proudly.

Lulune looked at her, fully exasperated, and said, “Haa… Muscleheads like you are just hopeless. You need to take this seriously!”

She belonged to the elven race, which was a rarity around these parts, had vibrant green hair, and for some reason, she could never see eye to eye with Akane, resulting in their constant bickering.

“Ha! You’re just a scaredy-cat, Lulune! You’ve got no backbone!”

“Y-You’re wrong! I’m totally not scared, you hear?”  

Despite saying that, Lulune’s legs were shaking slightly. The golden-haired Mia took notice of this and reassured her with a gentle smile, “Everything will be okay, Lulune-san. Alize-san will be with us.”

“You are kind, Mia, but you don’t have to exaggerate when it comes to my strength, okay?” I said while patting her head.

I never knew why but it was so strangely pleasant to pat Mia’s head like that. It just felt right.

As I did so, Mia’s lips curved into a soft smile. And seeing that, Akane and Lulune brought their heads closer to me without saying a word.

“Alright, alright, one at a time. I must say, though, I can’t imagine what’s so good about having someone like me pat your heads.”

The three of them answered me quickly, one after the other.

“It feels amazing! It really does!”

“That’s right! Your heat pats are the best thing in the world, Alize-san!”

“I agree with Akane for once. I really enjoy it when you pat my head.”

Nina, a small, black-haired girl, looked at the three of them and decided to come and sit silently on my lap.

“…What’s the matter, Nina?”

“Me too. Head pats.”

“You too?”

“Yup, me too,” Nina said briefly and I began to pat her head.

She remained as expressionless as ever though; she wasn’t exactly what you’d call an open book.  

Meanwhile, the silver-haired Ayesha, the most mature amongst them, watched over them with a look full of reproach.   

“Aren’t you girls a little old to be asking for head pats? We’re basically adults now, you know?”

In response, Akane moved closer to Ayesha, poked her cheek, and told her teasingly, “You say that but it’s obvious you’d like to do the same!”

“…You’re mistaken. I do not want Alize-san to pat my head or anything of the sort.”

However, everyone knew that wasn’t how she really felt.

I scratched my head while mumbling, “Good grief,” put Nina back in her seat, and went close to Ayesha.

“There. I’ll pat your head, too. I know how much you want me to do it.”

“I-I don’t!”

“I get it, I get it. You’re an adult now, right, Ayesha?”

“Y-You don’t get it at all!”

Nonetheless, once I started patting her head, she beamed in happiness. She was at a delicate age when sometimes girls can’t be as honest with their feelings.

We continued chatting about everything and anything as we made our way toward the dungeon.

The dungeon we were going to visit was an E-rank, so it wasn’t particularly difficult, however, we still couldn’t allow ourselves to get careless when dealing with the monsters we’d encounter there or things could get ugly for us.

“We’ll arrive at the dungeon soon, so that’s enough head pats. Get ready, girls.”

A look of nervousness appeared on the girls’ faces.

I thought it was actually good to be at least a little nervous when diving into the dungeon for the first time.

The carriage came to a halt in front of the dungeon.

After paying the old man that took us there, we stood in line in front of the dungeon’s entrance.

It appeared to be nothing more than the entrance of a cave, but it was well protected by guards, aligned to each side.

It’d be a disaster if a regular person were to enter the dungeon by accident, even if it was just an E-rank dungeon, so soldiers were dispatched from nearby towns to guard the entrance.  

“Good day. Can I please take a look at your adventurer card?”

“Yeah, sure,” I said and showed him my adventurer card.

The guard looked rather confused at first, but once he saw the girls behind me, he seemed to have understood something.

“Aah. You must be escorting them, huh? Well, they should be fine having a B-rank adventurer like you around.”

He wasn’t exactly wrong so I just nodded along.  

“Yeah, something like that. Can we enter?”

“Yes, of course. Be careful in there.”

The guard moved to one side to let us enter, and the girls’ first experience in a dungeon began at last…

I kept reminiscing about this and that until at some point, I ended up falling into a deep slumber.

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