Ch.168167. Journey? (9)

# 167. A Trip? (9)

“Of course I know! It’s… something scary..”

She was right, but her explanation was quite clumsy.

Still, since she wasn’t wrong, I didn’t nitpick.

“Right. So, are you afraid of such things?”

“Me? What do you… think?”

Truthfully, she looked like someone who would be terrified.

While you shouldn’t judge by appearances, her look was so telling that I couldn’t completely ignore it.

“I think you’d be terrified.”

“How did you know…”

“Then let’s go there.”

Actually, I had initially planned to avoid it if she was scared, but seeing her reaction somehow made it seem like it would be fun.

However, Luna didn’t seem to share that sentiment.

“Um… can’t we go somewhere else? You know… there are many other places…?”

“I think it’ll be fun.”

“I think it’ll be fun too, but…”

“Then let’s go.”

I cut off Luna’s words and immediately headed toward the haunted house.

Luna followed me, sweating profusely.

“Are you okay?”

When I asked, Luna gritted her teeth and answered.

“Yeah… I’m fine… probably…”

“That’s right, you’ll be fine.”

“Have you been to places like that before…?”

“No?”

“Yet you seem so relaxed?”

Actually, whether ghosts exist or not, and whether they’re scary or not, is separate from haunted houses.

The ghosts in haunted houses are fake ghosts, after all.

“Of course. Who would be scared of such things? Right?”

“Uh… right. I’m not scared either…”

Finally, Luna and I arrived right in front of the haunted house.

I wasn’t showing any particular expression, but Luna was different.

Luna was expressing with her whole body that she really didn’t want to go in.

I asked her.

“Don’t you want to go in?”

Only then did Luna finally put aside her pride.

With eyes that looked like she might cry, she told me.

“Yeah… I don’t…”

“But… this isn’t a haunted house.”

“Huh…? What do you… Ah!? Wait!! Wait a second!!”

I pushed Luna, who was confused by my words, into what she had thought was a haunted house.

Then I also entered.

‘As expected…’

As soon as I entered, what I felt wasn’t the eerie atmosphere unique to haunted houses, but the dissonance of spatial movement.

However, what I saw upon entering was quite similar to a haunted house.

‘A mansion?’

A rather grand mansion, yet one where no signs of life could be felt.

I had entered the entrance hall of the mansion.

And Luna, who had entered the entrance hall just like me, was sitting on the floor for some reason, not getting up.

‘What’s wrong with her…? Is she crying…?’

Sure enough, the sound of sniffling reached my ears.

Honestly, the prank was a bit harsh.

Still…

‘Was that too much…?’

Realizing this, I handed her a handkerchief I had and apologized to Luna, who had been sniffling continuously.

“Hey… I’m sorry…”

Luna wiped her flowing tears with the handkerchief I gave her and stood up.

Then she looked at me with resentful eyes and said.

“You… really… went too far…”

“I’m sorry…”

“Don’t laugh… I’m being serious right now…”

“Okay, I’m sorry.”

“I said don’t laugh…?”

How could I not laugh?

There would be very few people in this world who could hold back their laughter seeing Luna making such expressions and saying such things.

“I don’t want to laugh, but… I can’t help it.”

“Apologize…”

“I’m sorry… really.”

“If you’re sorry, at least hold my hand… it’s scary here.”

She was quite creative with her tactics.

But since I was the one who had done wrong first, I couldn’t help but fall for her ploy.

“But… we shouldn’t hold hands, right? This is a dungeon.”

“So what…”

“Monsters will appear soon.”

“So what…”

“Shouldn’t we respond separately then?”

“Hmph… fine… then hold my hand later at least…”

Luna had been acting cute since earlier, and after hearing it continuously, I had become somewhat used to it, so I didn’t feel anything particular.

I answered in a calm voice and prepared for the upcoming battle.

“I’ll think about it.”

The moment I summoned my sword, numerous energies could be felt from the many rooms of the mansion.

Disordered, chaotic energies—they were undoubtedly those of monsters.

“They’re coming.”

“But why is this a dungeon?”

“Since it’s a trip, we should have things like this too, right?”

Both yesterday’s events and today’s—the timing and situation were too perfect to be coincidences.

As if someone had intended it.

“I guess this isn’t just a leisure trip after all.”

“Exactly…”

“From the beginning, there’s no way we’d be on such a carefree trip at a time like this, right? Besides, we attend the Imperial Academy.”

In a way, maybe we had underestimated things too much.

There’s no way we’d just be on a leisure trip at a time like this.

I said as I cut down the monsters one by one.

“But it’s a rather low-level dungeon.”

Since they couldn’t know which student would enter which dungeon, they seemed to have lowered the level somewhat and fixed it here.

Otherwise, it could be dangerous.

After all, unlike us, there could be plenty of children who wander alone.

“Yeah… it’s really easy… at this rate, we can’t even use it as a warm-up…”

Of course, in our case, the problem was that it was too easy.

Even if we had entered alone, it would have been easy, but we entered together.

I swung my sword at the last remaining monster.

-Slash!!-

Even though they were monsters, they had human forms, so it didn’t feel particularly good.

After dealing with the last monster, Luna and I looked around the mansion to see if there might be a chest.

However, unfortunately, we couldn’t even find the shadow of a chest.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing, why?”

“There might just not be any. It seems like it’s because this is an artificial dungeon.”

“But why do they do this…?”

“How would I know…? They probably just want to see if we can handle unusual situations calmly.”

It was like this because it was us, but for other students, it could be quite dangerous.

After all, they wouldn’t even know it was a dungeon and wouldn’t have brought weapons.

“Let’s go.”

“Okay.”

The exit door opened again after killing the last monster.

I walked toward that exit, and Luna followed behind me.

“Hold my hand.”

“No.”

“What!? You promised!”

“I said I’d think about it, didn’t I?”

“Ah… are you really going to be like this…?”

I left the dungeon with Luna, who seemed a bit upset.

Even after leaving the dungeon, Luna continued to complain.

“Is it that hard to hold my hand once?”

“Yes.”

“Tch… even after making a promise…”

“Promises are meant to be broken, and we didn’t even make a promise in the first place.”

“Still…”

Ignoring Luna’s words, I asked Amelia, who was waiting for us in front of the haunted house.

“But if it’s like this, why is the hero here?”

“Everyone’s doing well, so I’m not needed.”

“If you only help when we’re about to die… is that really being an escort?”

“What else would it be?”

Amelia was incredibly shameless, but the current situation wasn’t one to blame her.

After all, the academy probably ordered her to do this.

“Besides, you two don’t need it.”

“We’re not talking about us…”

“The other kids have already finished and are out here.”

“Ah… so that’s why they’re here…”

We probably finished the fastest.

However, it seemed we started much later than the others.

“Yes, I’m here to take you.”

“Where to?”

“It’s right in front of here. Your teacher said that since we’re at an amusement park, we should at least ride the Ferris wheel. Over there.”

Amelia pointed to where the Ferris wheel was, and there were our classmates, including Gloria.

It seemed like they were all going to ride the Ferris wheel together, and seeing that, Luna clung to me and said.

“Let’s ride that together.”

“No.”

“No! You can at least do that much! Especially after breaking that promise earlier…”

“Fine… fine, just don’t make that face.”

“Nice! See, isn’t it better when you agree?”

As soon as we arrived, teams boarded the Ferris wheel one by one, and since we arrived last, we boarded the last cabin.

It’s strange that the other kids didn’t say anything, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that.

“But riding a Ferris wheel in broad daylight…? Is this right?”

“Well, what’s wrong with it… it’s not bad.”

“There’s no mood… but why are you coming closer? I didn’t allow that.”

“You can’t escape from here anyway.”

“Really…”

For some reason, Luna was sticking right next to me in that relatively spacious place.

So close that I could even hear her breathing.

I turned my gaze away from Luna, who was doing such inexplicable things, and was looking at the view of the amusement park visible from outside.

“Hey… can’t you move away a bit…?”

“Hey, look this way for a moment.”

“Ah… what now…?”

Without any suspicion, I turned my face toward Luna.

At that moment, I felt a moist sensation.

That sensation was none other than Luna’s lips.