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The group of 3 that were waiting in front of our house. 

Yesterday, we thought of the possibility that maybe it was a misunderstanding of ours. It is not like we spoke to them to confirm, so they might have been in front of our house by coincidence… The chance was at least there. 

But this cements it. 

With the word TV coming out from them, it is certain they are Chosen.

“Uhm~, sorry, do you have time?” 

“Jeanne-chan and Hikaru-kun, right?” 

“Actually, we are a bit troubled, you see.” 

Seeing the reaction of me and Jeanne who were frozen at the unexpected situation, they must have judged we were not rejecting them, the 3 closed the distance. 

Not only does this smell like trouble, they are acting strangely familiar. Jeanne grabbed my sleeve tightly. Her white face paled even more, and it seems like she is in her social anxiety mode. 

I also don’t want to have anything to do with them.

“We are running.” (Hikaru)

I immediately decided this.

“Eh?” (Rifreya)

“That’s good. How?” (Jeanne)

“I will bring out Darkness Fog for an instant, so let’s dash out of here.” (Hikari)

We whispered this in a way so that the 3 don’t hear this.

We shouldn’t be using too flashy of an ability outside the dungeon, but I activated the ability for a second, and we ran past the 3 who were unable to deal with the sudden darkness.

We currently have the leg strength to run 100 meters in around 11 seconds -not like we have actually measured it though.

The dungeon is really close to the guild. Before they chase after us, we sell our Spirit Stones quickly, and we go to the diner we frequent to hide there. 

That’s when we finally managed to take a breath. 

“To think they would wait for us to come out from the dungeon. This isn’t like Earth, you know? We can just get at them. How about telling the guild?” (Jeanne)

Once we took our seats, Jeanne hit the table and fumed. 

For Jeanne who is being wary of the new Chosen, tactless visitors are nothing but stress inducing. 

Of course, I also feel the same. 

I just hope they have understood that we don’t want anything to do with them after we ran away…

By the way, Rifreya is making an uncomfortable expression here. 

She does have a previous history of lying in wait after all…

“U-Uhm, I understand the reason why you two don’t want to meet the new Chosen, but they didn’t look like bad people, you know? How about at least listening to what they say?” (Rifreya)

“Don’t wanna. With just the fact that they were lying in wait makes them bad people.” (Jeanne)

“I also don’t wanna.” (Hikaru)

“They might have a reason to go as far as lying in wait! For example; liking Hikaru…no, we can ignore them if that’s the case though!” (Rifreya)

There’s a high chance they are fans of Jeanne, but Jeanne herself isn’t the type to deal with that kind of people. Whichever the case, they are so shameless I don’t want anything to do with them.

“Anyways, we definitely won’t get involved with them. If you really want to, you listen to what they have to say, Kuro.” (Jeanne)

“I-I also don’t want to. Counting on you, Rifreya.” (Hikaru)

“Eeeh…” (Rifreya)

“Reya, you may not understand, but dealing with those guys…the 2nd Chosen group only holds demerits for us. No, we are suffering mentally here, so we are already victims here. They are enemies.” (Jeanne)

I was surprised Jeanne went as far as outright stating they are ‘enemies’, but I am mostly of the same opinion. 

How they were so unreserved even when it was our first time meeting and how we don’t know what they are thinking was making it nauseating. 

“What would they get from gathering 3 people? And they were waiting for us of the 1st group, you know? They said they were troubled, right? They will most likely go ‘bring out money’, ‘help us explore’, ‘show us the stores’, ‘form a party with us’, and maybe even ‘let us live with you guys’. This is a completely foreign world for us Chosen after all… Of course, it is clear that things won’t end up decently if we were to give a helping hand to a spoiled and cowardly bunch like that.” (Jeanne)

“It is as Jeanne says. There’s no merit. We are finally going to be challenging the 4th Floor here.” (Hikaru)

“…I kind of feel like you are trying to put any reason out there to avoid contact though… Well, if you two don’t want to, I don’t really mind whichever.” (Rifreya)

“Then we will ignore them as planned, ignore them. If they are even more persistent than this, we will have them taste the iron fist of Reya.” (Jeanne)

“What do you think I am, Jeanne-san…?” (Rifreya)

Anyways, by the time we concluded that we will be avoiding them thoroughly, the dishes were brought to us. 

Saute meat and vegetables, fried udon, bread, soup; lately, we have been ordering haphazardly, but we can eat everything with all 4 of us without any problems. 

Jeanne and Full don’t eat much, but the amount of food Rifreya and I eat is increasing. It has only doubled for now, but thinking about how we will eventually have a bottomless stomach like with the glutton talent, dungeon exploration has its ups and lows. 

But the food in this world is good, so that’s truly a relief. If the food was bad and the amount was hard to obtain, it would have been hell.

With tasty food, just eating a fill of it also satisfies the heart in tough situations. 

“By the way, Kuro, the armor we ordered before, shouldn’t it be about ready now?” (Jeanne)

When we finished eating, Jeanne said this as if in passing. 

Armor…?

“Armor, armor…wait, ah! Now that you mention it, we did order them!” (Hikaru)

We were told that it would take quite a good deal of time when we ordered it, and I forgot about it. 

At the armor workshop that the dwarf old man recommended to us, we ordered mithril scale mails. We have already paid the 8 gold coins. 

We were told it might take 2 weeks at most, but it should be ready by now. Let’s drop by before we go back home. 

◇◆◆◆◇

The next day we got our armor. 

With morning coming, I slowly open the wooden window and confirm the outside.

“They haven’t come… They might come at a later time.” (Hikaru)

The 3 from before are not in front of our house. 

After that, even when it was time to leave the house, the 3 didn’t show up.

Looks like they have given up. 

“They might be waiting at the guild. Don’t lower your guard yet, Kuro…” (Jeanne)

Jeanne was a bit fearful and wary even when we came out of the house. 

She acts all big towards people she has allowed to open up with, but she is completely hopeless when it comes to strangers. Or maybe Jeanne has also received slandering messages like me. They do say that popularity attracts equal amounts of haters after all.

“Kuro, I have been thinking about this, but the fact that they could talk with us so nonchalantly might be because our levels are not high enough. We should put more passion into it.” (Jeanne)

“Passion? As in equipment? I feel like the weapon of Rifreya gives off a lot of pressure though.” (Hikaru)

“True. They actually wouldn’t be able to strike a conversation with Reya. I myself wouldn’t be able to talk to someone looking like her if it wasn’t for that matter with you.” (Jeanne)

“Someone looking like me, you say…” (Rifreya)

But well, I understand her.

Rifreya is a beauty that can dazzle, and I do think you require courage to talk to her. 

Her weapon is also big. 

“And so, Reya, we are counting on you with the reception of the guild. Kuro and I will be waiting.” (Jeanne)

“Okay, I don’t mind.” (Rifreya)

“If those guys talk to you, give them a good wallop.” (Jeanne)

“Didn’t we talk about this before? That they have some sort of strong weapon.” (Rifreya)

Jeanne has opened her heart quite a lot with Rifreya, and they are now able to joke around with each other. They are also around the same age, so I think this is a good thing. 

By the way, if you really wallop them, I think it will turn into quite the trouble, but I doubt they would go opening fire all of a sudden. 

Jeanne and I hid, and after around 5 minutes, Rifreya came out. 

Looks like she didn’t meet the 3. 

“…So, what are you two doing?” (Rifreya)

Rifreya says, baffled. 

“What, you ask. We were curling up here so they didn’t find us.” (Jeanne)

“Creating faint shadows with Dark Mist in a way it doesn’t stand out is of utmost importance.” (Hikaru)

“Haah, you two are strong, and yet, you are so weak-willed in weird areas…” (Rifreya)

Jeanne and I are introverts to begin with. 

Natives approach us without the plus and minus things in mind, but Chosen are different; especially the 2nd Chosen group.

I will put it bluntly here.

Jeanne and I are scared of the 2nd Chosen group. 

We hired Grapefull as usual and headed to the dungeon.

Go through the 1st Floor, 2nd Floor, 3rd Floor…

A floor that the 2nd Chosen group can’t reach having only been recently transferred.

Since coming to this world, I always feel that the dungeon is the place that’s the most comfortable. 

The path to the 4th Floor’s stairs. We were moving while defeating the monsters along the way. Jeanne was checking the Status Board and made a rare surprised face as she said: “Oi, Kuro, did you notice this?” 

“This, what? We can’t see other Status Boards, so I don’t know what you are referring to.” (Hikaru)

“It is the Hell Chosen. This…man or woman survived.” (Jeanne)

Because you can’t just have the World Map open the whole time, I didn’t notice. 

When I checked, the blue dot was certainly still there. It’s moving outside the hell. 

“Wow… How many days has it been since they transferred?” (Hikaru)

“It is already close to 10 days. Judging from the distance they have travelled, it doesn’t seem like they were hanging there with Barrier Stones. The 2nd Chosen group is dangerous, but this one must be on a whole different level of dangerous.” (Jeanne)

A hell is apparently a place that’s considered extremely dangerous in this world. 

A wasteland that extends several kilometers wide; a wall of hundreds of meters tall; hungry carnivorous beasts. 

Detailed information isn’t shown with the World Map, but it is to the point that even Rifreya knows about it being a danger zone. It is not a place that a newly transferred Earthling can survive. 

But this Chosen has survived.

They must have gotten quite the powerful Gift, and if not, they must be a survival expert. 

“But they haven’t crossed over the wall of the hell yet. If they do manage that, then they really are the real deal.” (Jeanne)

“It overlaps with the line in the map, so we can’t really tell though?” (Hikaru)

“The dot is slightly in the inner part of it. I doubt they have crossed over it yet.” (Jeanne)

Will they eventually get over the several hundreds of meters of that hell’s rising cliff and make a glorious escape? 

Well, they are pretty far from Meltia (it does look pretty close when seeing it in the world map though), so the chances of this Chosen coming here are pretty low, but we should keep tabs on them just in case.

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