Side: Amahashi Kakeru

A few days had passed since the final battle with the Demon Lord.

Today, like every day now, I was sitting through class at school.

The whirlwind days, the days where I had no idea whether I'd still be alive tomorrow—I'd gone back to my ordinary, everyday life.

It was what I'd wished for the whole time. To return to my own world and live a normal life.

The thing was, to be honest, after spending three-odd years as a Hero doing nothing but moving my body, I just couldn't focus on class.

Was I really supposed to keep coming to school like this? The old me had gone on to high school without thinking about my future or anything at all. It had been a promise I'd made to Grandma.

Over in that other world I'd been so sick of fighting. And yet, now that I was actually back, I kept catching myself wondering how I was supposed to live from here on.

Either way, maybe I was just bound to keep wanting whatever my current life didn't have.

Anyway—P.E. was next.

"Ugh, a marathon run?"

When the P.E. teacher announced the day's lesson, the guys in my class made no effort to hide their distaste.

Marathon was a generous word for it; we were just running laps around the schoolyard. Everyone started jogging at the teacher's signal, looking a little sluggish about it.

I checked that my magic item still had my Skills and physical abilities capped, then fell in behind them.

Ugh, my body felt heavy. Since my own sense of my body was still set to how it was when I fought the Demon Lord, the moment I tried to run I was honestly shocked at how badly it moved.

I'd better get used to this fast, or everyday life was going to be rough.

Over in that other world, defeating monsters raised your level and boosted your physical ability. Of course, you could raise your level through basic training too, so early on I'd done that kind of drilling as well.

Running as a form of training—it might have been the first time since back then.

"Stop! Everyone, hold where you are!"

How long had we been running? At the teacher's voice, everyone halted.

Apparently there'd been another earthquake. Mercifully, this one I could feel a little too, but it wasn't enough to make a fuss over.

Still… there was this sound, like a low rumble from underground. Should I undo the Skill seal and test whether my Danger Sense Skill would kick in? No, no need. It wasn't like there were monsters around.

It would stop soon. I waited, telling myself that.

"Hey! Look over there!"

At the slightly panicked voice of a classmate, I looked around to see a crack spreading through part of the schoolyard, a fissure opening up. And right there… were Horii-san and a few others.

My body moved on reflex, thanks to my experience as the Hero. I grabbed the hand of Horii-san, who was several meters ahead, and half-dragged her into a run.

"You guys run too!"

The reason I grabbed only her hand was that she was right at the center of the most dangerous part of the fissure. I called out to the other classmates nearby, too, and they managed to get moving, scattering in all directions.

"Kyaaa!"

"What is going on?!"

But the fissure widened unnaturally. The ones who looked like they wouldn't make it out in time were… Kitamura and Aizawa-san!

Tch—there was no time to turn off the magic item.

There were things a person could do and things they couldn't. What you could do came first. That much I'd learned over in that other world.

For now, Horii-san and I had to get somewhere safe. As I ran, thinking that, the ground began to give off a strange glow.

"What is this?!"

Yeah—whoever's voice that was, I was thinking the exact same thing. I could feel some kind of magical force, though I wanted to believe I was imagining it.

No good! The fissure was spreading faster than I could run. This wasn't even a big earthquake—so why?!

"Horii-san, hurry!"

This is bad! The instant I thought it, Horii-san and I were swallowed up, sliding down into the crack in the ground.

"Kyaaaa!!"

Listening to Horii-san's scream, we slid like we were on a slide for a while before finally coming to a stop. Good thing we were in our gym clothes for exercise. Otherwise, with Horii-san in her school uniform skirt, things would have gotten ugly.

I immediately looked up to see if I could climb back out from where we'd fallen, but for some reason the fissure we'd dropped through had closed cleanly shut.

This was…

Around us, a road wide enough for two cars to pass each other—no, a cavern—stretched away to the left and right. And even though no sunlight reached down here, it wasn't dark. Torches set at regular intervals blazed bright red.

No way…

"Hey, what just happened?"

"Beats me. I get that we fell into a crack the earthquake opened up, but…"

Horii-san's voice cut my train of thought short. Thanks to the way we'd slid down, neither of us seemed hurt.

I'd played dumb about what had happened, but… the truth was, this scene looked familiar. It was a dead ringer for the dungeons I'd gone into a few times over in that other world.

It had to be a coincidence. Right? It was a coincidence… Whoa, no, more importantly, we needed to get out of here.

"What do we do? Wait here for help?"

That said, I'd be fine on my own no matter what, but the question was what to do about Horii-san. This wasn't a situation with any precedent, so I couldn't say anything for certain, but if she didn't want to move, I shouldn't force her to.

"Heey! Anyone there?!"

While Horii-san was still mulling over my question, a shout came from somewhere fairly close. That voice was… Kitamura. I'd seen him fall into the crack the same way we had, so there was no mistaking it.

"Kitamura, that you?!"

"Is that Amahashi?!"

He was close. Sounded like he was heading our way.

Maybe I should undo at least the Skill seal while I had the chance. If I remembered right, I just had to touch the magic item and concentrate…

"Something wrong?"

Horii-san's voice brought me back to myself.

The moment I undid the Skill seal, my Danger Sense Skill reacted to something far off. And my Presence Detection Skill kicked in too—I could sense what was happening within a certain range.

As I'd thought, Kitamura and one other person were running toward us.

"Nah, just wondering what's going on here."

I made a point of acting calm. Mercifully, the only things responding nearby were Kitamura and someone else. Beyond that… there were the faint, faint signatures of weak enemies.

Just like the first floor of a beginner's dungeon.

"Hey! Amahashi and Horii-san are here!"

"Horii-san!"

The one with Kitamura was Aizawa-san, a girl from our class. I was pretty sure she was fairly well known in track. Slim, with the build of a textbook track athlete.

"Thank goodness—looks like Kitamura-kun and Aizawa-san are both okay."

Having more people around must have been reassuring. Horii-san and Aizawa-san both visibly relaxed. Honestly, I'd only ever exchanged greetings with Horii-san, really. I figured more girls around just made her feel safer.

"What the heck is this place?!"

Kitamura, on the other hand, was a little worked up. He was probably rattled by the whole new experience.

Over in that other world there'd been things like the mapping Skill that came in handy in dungeons. Not that I had any of them. Danger Sense Skill and Presence Detection Skill were useful, at least.

"Hey, let's hurry up and get out. Isn't it dangerous to be here if another earthquake hits?"

"Hold on, hold on—what even is this place to begin with? Some underground school facility? It's even got torches."

Now that everyone had calmed down, talk turned to what came next. Aizawa-san and Kitamura seemed to be friends comfortable enough to talk freely, and they were discussing the situation.

The reason nobody was panicking was probably that the surroundings—the brick walls and floor—looked man-made.

"I heard there's an underground storage room, but there shouldn't be some old-fashioned underground facility like this. And those torches, what even are they…"

It wasn't that they'd dragged her into it, exactly, but Horii-san seemed to be intellectually curious. The strangeness of the situation had piqued her interest.

But she had a point—there was something off about this place.

What was going on? Was this really a dungeon?

I could feel a magical force coming off the torches. They were a dead ringer for the torches in those dungeons over there—the semi-permanent ones that never burned out.

Which meant those monster-like signatures my Danger Sense Skill and Presence Detection Skill were picking up…

"Anyway, should we head outside?"

No good. I couldn't let myself stop thinking about priorities, either.

There was no question this was a place I knew nothing about. And on top of that, my gear was a gym uniform and sneakers. It'd be better not to lift the cap on my physical ability and magic. Showing off my real strength carelessly would only make people think I was some kind of creature.

If this really was a dungeon, I'd play it this way until something nasty showed up.

With my experience and Skills as the Hero, I could get us out of a place this minor. Even if there were monsters.

In any case, right now I had to get my classmates out of this dungeon-like place and back outside.