Level Down 24 (Patreon)

Volume 1 Chapter 24 - Awakening of Iseria

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(Now that I think about it, Iseria fainted last time too, didn’t she? Do we have that kind of fate?) (Allen)

While thinking that, Allen took one deep breath. Then, he slowly lowered Iseria to the ground, took out treant building materials from his magic bag, spread them on the ground, and covered it with a blanket to create a simple bed.

Allen moved Iseria there and covered her with his own robe. As he did, he remembered that Iseria had injured her leg, and hurriedly prepared a potion, but there was no sign or shape of the wound that should have been there.

Allen decided to wait for Iseria to wake up while keeping an eye on the surroundings. With Allen's stats, it wouldn't be a problem for him to return to the first floor while holding Iseria, but he feared that what had happened in the Demon's Dungeon entrance would happen all over again.

In fact, it might be even more troublesome than the Demon Dungeon since this one is much larger and the number of people using it is also in a different league. Allen's prediction is probably not wrong.

(Still, what was that light?) (Allen)

Allen wracked his brain, remembering the situation where Iseria suddenly started emitting light. Since it happened right after his tears fell on her, that seemed to be the trigger, but Allen knew better than anyone that his own tears had no effect.

If that was the case, it seemed like it's the effect of the mask he's wearing, but it's hard to believe that the mask Allen had been wearing all this time has such an effect.

When Allen found the mask, he couldn't help but shed tears when he saw himself wearing the mask reflected in the water while thinking, ‘even though it was a treasure I finally found, why was the design so hard to use?’ But at that time, nothing happened.

As Allen continued to be on guard, feeling hazy over the unanswered question, Iseria began to stretch her body while letting out an “Uunn─” sound. Iseria then raised her upper body with a dazed expression, looked at the robe draped over her, and then slowly turned her gaze toward her surroundings.

Then, that gaze turned towards Allen and stopped. When Iseria smiled at him, still with dazed eyes, Allen continued to look at her, a little bewildered.

After a while, Iseria's eyes firmly focused, and in that instant, she jumped up like a spring doll and began to look to her left and right, restlessly on guard. Allen guessed that she's probably looking for the hanging tree, so he tried to tell her ‘don’t worry,’ but then he realized that ‘come to think of it, I’m in Nera's form now aren’t I?’ so he changed his mind and closed his mouth.

‘Nera is so troublesome, I know I need it but,’ Allen thought in his mind as he took out a black slate and a white stone to write on it from his magic bag and began writing on it.

[If it’s the hanging tree, it’s not here. Don’t worry] (Allen)

After writing that and letting her know by hitting the slate, Iseria put her hand on her chest and let out a deep breath.

“Thank you very much. Nera-sama saved me, I see. From that tree monster, uh, from the hanging tree.” (Iseria)

As Iseria said that with a soft smile, Allen was a little mesmerized and slow to react, but he nodded his head. He felt that Iseria's slightly moist eyes contained not only her gratitude, but also her complete trust towards Nera.

(Uwah, if I'm not good at this, I'm going to get the wrong idea, aren't I? What an old man killer) (Allen)

While trying to calm down his pounding heart with such a joke, Allen looked away, and once again showed the slate with letters written on it to Iseria.

[If you want to go back to the surface, I’ll accompany you to the stairs.] (Allen)

“That's true. I'm sorry to have you do something like that after you've saved me, but as expected, I will be going home today. I'll also need to do some maintenance on the equipment that was damaged in the battle... AAH!” (Iseria)

Iseria shouted in grief. She just realized that the light armor she was wearing was missing after she calmed down. Iseria then moved her head around to look for it, and found her light armor fallen behind her. Because Allen had forcibly removed it, the joints and the likes were bent, and it was clear that it would no longer be possible to use it normally.

Looking at Iseria's back as she was probably looking at it in a daze, Allen was inwardly panicking.

(Crap. I didn't worry about it since it was an emergency, but that was pretty expensive equipment, wasn’t it? I wonder if she'll get angry and ask me to pay for it. No, judging from how Iseria is, I feel like she'll say ‘it can't be helped’ if I tell her the truth.) (Iseria)

Allen was thinking that as he watched the situation, but his anxiety grew as Iseria didn’t move at all.

When Allen slowly moved around and secretly saw her face to check, Iseria was holding back her voice as her face contorted and she just continued to shed tears.

Seeing this unusual situation, Allen's thoughts about his position as Nera and what to do about compensation were all blown away.

Because it became clear to him that there was more to it than just losing equipment.

“Sorry. I didn't know it was important and just tore it off because it was getting in the way of CPR!” (Allen)

Allen resolutely put his hand on his chest and confessed that it was his fault, as if embodying the lesson Allen had always told his younger siblings: to immediately apologize when you do something wrong.

Iseria raised her head and looked at Allen with tear filled eyes. Allen waited patiently for what she would say, his heart beating faster.

“Nera-sama, your voice...” (Iseria)

“Ah, crap!” (Allen)

Allen unintentionally spoke even more, repeating blunder after blunder as he panicked. Perhaps finding this situation strange, Iseria's expression loosened slightly, and ‘fufu,’ she laughed.

“So you were able to talk.” (Iseria)

“Aa─h, well, yeah. I just didn't speak because I didn't want people to know my true identity.” (Allen)

There was no point trying to deceive her now, so Allen shook his head side to side with his hands raised. Then, he sat down in front of Iseria and looked at Iseria's broken light armor with a serious gaze.

“My bad. You were attached to this, weren't you?” (Allen)

“Yes. It was given to me as a farewell gift by someone that’s like my Ojii-sama, I am very indebted to him.” (Iseria)

Allen's expression turns pale at those words. Partly because he had destroyed her cherished item, and partly because he was thinking about the background of the person she called ‘Ojii-sama,’ who would give an obviously high-class light armor as a parting gift. If he is a commoner, he is probably a wealthy person such as a large merchant, and if he is not, there is a high possibility that he is a noble. Allen could easily imagine that it would impact him either way.

Iseria, who was looking nostalgically at the broken light armor, returned her gaze to Allen, and smiled as the atmosphere was about to become strange.

“It's okay. Ojii-sama is a kind person, and since it was necessary to save my life, he would praise it and not treat it negatively. He was a person who detest unreasonable things after all.” (Iseria)

“No, I don’t particularly think that... I appreciate the information.” (Allen)

“I'm the one who should be grateful.” (Iseria)

Encouraged by Iseria's laughter, Allen finally smiled. That said, he was wearing the Nera mask, so his expression couldn't be seen, but Iseria could still feel it from the atmosphere.

“I wonder if it can be fixed?” (Iseria)

“I know a skilled blacksmith, so I'm going to ask him. Can I borrow it for a while?” (Allen)

“Yes.” (Iseria)

Allen let out a sigh as he looked at Iseria, who seemed happy with the proposal and replied instantly. Then he scratched her head and opened his mouth.

“No, Iseria, you gotta remember to be suspicious. There's a possibility that I'll just make off with it, you know.” (Allen)

“But Nera-sama wouldn't do that, right?” (Iseria)

“That’s true, but,” (Allen)

“Then there’s no problem.” (Iseria)

Her response, as if she had full confidence in him, caused Allen to fall silent, unable to continue speaking, and then he let out a sigh again. And in contrast, Iseria watched with a smile as Allen picked up her light armor and stuffed it into his magic bag.

Iseria stood up and moved her body to check its condition. Relieved as her body moved without any hindrance, Iseria smiled, and then Allen told her.

“Then I'll take you to the stairs. Sorry, but I have something to do first, so if you're not comfortable leaving the dungeon by yourself, you should wait there.” (Allen)

“What is Nera-sama going to do?” (Iseria)

“Aah, I blew away the hanging tree, but I left it alone because I prioritized rescuing you. If that guy was still there, there might be more victims, so I wanted to get rid of it first.” (Allen)

Although no one but eccentric people would come to this 9th floor, there are also those who pass through it in order to move on to the lower floors, and conversely, those eccentric people do come here. ‘I don’t want to leave things be, and then regret it later when I hear that there have been victims.’ That's what Allen thought.

Allen noticed that Iseria's expression changed to a serious one as she listened to his words.

“Could you take me there?” (Iseria)

“No. With Iseria's stats, you can't beat that guy. It might be frustrating, but a good adventurer needs to be able to make that kind of decision and change his mind...” (Allen)

Allen was about to continue with his somewhat preachy words, but he was stopped by Iseria's straightforward gaze. In front of Allen, Iseria closed her eyes, and with her cheeks turning red as if she was about to confess her feelings, she opened her eyes.

“I'm a hero egg.” (Iseria)

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(T/N: Ojii-sama mean ‘grandfather’ but I don’t want to regret translating it to ‘grandfather’ so I used ‘Ojii-sama,’ and in fact, I’m relieved that I left it as ‘Ojii-sama’ already, because using ‘grandfather’ in some of the sentences I translated is just not fitting.)

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