Epilogue: You’ll Be Back II

You can still come back.

Someone said that to me once.

And they were right.

I did overcome the past—and now I return to a place where the light shines.

"..."

Lyu felt tears pooling beneath her eyelids. She frowned, trying not to let them spill over.

"Where am I…?"

She opened her eyes a little but closed them right away after seeing blinding light.

Even a magic-stone lantern was too much for those sky-blue eyes that had grown

overly accustomed to the darkness of the labyrinth. As she grimaced, unable even to

blink, she heard a surprised voice coming from immediately beside her.

"Lyu, are you okay?!"

She looked up at the form leaning over her.

The blurry shape eventually came into focus and the colors become clearer. She made

out blue-gray hair and eyes. Lyu parted her lips as the exhausted face peered down at

her.

"Syr…"

Her voice was terribly hoarse, as if her throat had forgotten how it was like to talk.

Nevertheless, as soon as she spoke the name, the face above her lit up with happiness.

Seemingly overcome with emotion, the girl fell onto Lyu.

"Lyu! Oh, Lyu!! I'm so glad…!"

She buried her face in Lyu's neck and hugged her softly like a sister or a mother. Lyu

could feel the familiar, kind warmth of her body through the blanket. Her heart was so

full she could not speak.

"Meow!! Lyu opened her eyes, meow!"

"Now please tell us how you feel about troubling us by sleeping for three days straight!"

"Damn, I was worried about you!"

Suddenly, Lyu was surrounded by chaos. Ahnya threw her hands up and pranced around

like a child while Chloe teased her with a smile and Runoa's happy face contradicted

her cross words.

Tears spilled from Lyu's eyes as she took in the smiles adorning the faces of her most

treasured friends.

"…I've never seen you cry before, meow."

Lyu smiled back faintly at the grinning Ahnya. Her mind was still blank as an untouched

sheet of paper, but she whispered the only words that she could think of: "Thank you."

"You're in such a daze we really ought to explain what's going on. You're in a clinic run

by the Guild inside Babel, meow."

"You were brought here as soon as you got back to the surface."

"We tried various items and magic on you as we were rushing through the Dungeon

but you just wouldn't wake up. We were so worried about you, meow!"

As Chloe tugged on the elf's gauze-wrapped ear, Runoa and Ahnya finished her

explanation. It was a bit hard for Lyu to make sense of everything since she had just

woken up a few minutes earlier, but the distinctive smell of antiseptics and the clean

white room helped her to understand.

As Syr slapped Chloe's hand away from Lyu's ear, Ahnya leaned over her.

"Lyu, how much do you remember, meow?"

"…I heard your voices in the deep levels… and I knew I could go home, with him…"

She had gotten that far when the image of Bell's face rose in her memory and she

opened her eyes wide. A second later the white vision vanished and she leaped up,

fully awake.

"What about him?! What about Bell?!"

"Meow! Calm down, meow!"

"Lyu, you'll hurt yourself!"

Chloe panicked as Lyu's face changed color and Syr desperately tried to calm her. Lyu

doubled over, her body screaming in protest at the sudden movement, but she ignored

the pain and grabbed Syr's shoulder.

"Syr, tell me! Is he all right?!"

"Mr. Bell is fine! He woke up before you did!"

"Yes, yes, meow! The white-haired kid is alive and well in a room down the hall! Now

calm down and take a nap, meow!"

"Idiot…!"

Ignoring Syr's soothing words, Ahnya prattled on until she had given away more

information than she should have, sending Runoa into a panic. As she feared, Lyu

leaped out of bed the instant she had learned Bell's whereabouts. With a speed that

caught her friends off guard given her injured condition, she flew out of her sickroom.

"Lyu, Lyu?! You can't leave dressed like that!"

Ignoring Syr's attempts to stop her, Lyu raced down the white hallway. Glimpses

through the windows of the blue sky she had so longed for didn't slow her down,

either. An animal person walking toward her—most likely some familia's healer

serving at the clinic by request of the Guild—gave her a shocked look, but Lyu didn't

even register her presence.

Bell… Bell!

All she cared about at the moment was her companion's safety.

Stumbling now and then, she steadied herself by propping a gauze-wrapped hand

against the wall and continued to the end of the hallway. At the place where the path

intersected with another hallway, she found the special-care room Ahnya had been

referring to and burst through the door.

"Bell!"

Sure enough, he was there.

He was sitting up on a bed pushed against the wall, wearing a sleeveless gown as

someone palpated his tightly wrapped left arm.

A beautiful silver-haired girl was examining him. Hestia and Lilly sat on either side of

the bed. Beside them the god Miach and his follower Nahza stood watching.

As Bell looked up in surprise, relief flooded Lyu's face.

"Ms. Lyu! Wait!"

Bell had started to smile back at Lyu, but then his face flushed. She followed his gaze

and looked down at her own body—and then she realized.

She wasn't wearing anything that could be properly called clothes. Just very thin

pieces of cloth. Frankly speaking, clinic underwear.

A pair of white short shorts on the bottom and a midriff-baring shirt on top.

The bandages wrapped around her arms and one thigh did a poor job of concealing

her supple skin. Lyu was standing wide-eyed, her face growing increasingly red, when

yet another tragedy befell her.

Perhaps because of her rapid movement, the thin strap tied at her shoulder had come

undone…

As the top fell to the ground with a rustle, Lyu shrieked like a little girl.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!"

""Don't look!!""

"Ouch!"

Ignoring Lyu as she sank to the ground with her arms crossed over her chest, the

blushing Hestia and Lilly both slapped Bell's head at the same time. To add to the

uproar, Nahza reprimanded her patron deity with a sharp shout of "You can't either,

Lord Miach!" He whined as she dug her elbow into his side.

"How dare you hit a critically injured patient!!!!!!!!!!"

With that, the beautiful silver-haired girl—Amid Teasanare, the Dian Cecht Familia

healer—thundered at the group.

After the fuss died down, Amid sent Lyu back to her room, where she was relegated to

strict bed rest. Little by little, she heard the whole story from the visitors who

streamed in and out.

"I heard from the Xenos that it was amazing you were still alive."

That she learned from Welf.

"Lady Lyu, we are so happy you made it."

"Thank you for saving Sir Bell."

The smith, who was accompanied on his visit by the fully recovered Mikoto and

Haruhime, recounted his conversation with the lizardman Lido.

"The thought of spending days in a place like that without proper equipment makes

even a monster like me shudder."

This was after they had collected Lyu and Bell and rushed back to the lower-level

safety point to take refuge. Welf had overheard the Xenos saying similar things to what

Lido told him.

Four days.

That was how long Bell and Lyu had spent wandering the thirty-seventh floor after

the wormwell carried them there. It had taken Welf and the rest of their party the

same amount of time to fight the Amphisbaena, join up with the Xenos, and make their

way down to the thirty-seventh floor.

"Honestly, I thought we were in deep trouble when we got Ouranos's message from

Fels telling us to head to the thirty-seventh floor."

While they rested briefly at the safety point and Lilly, Ahnya, and several others tried

to heal Bell and Lyu, Welf met with the Xenos in a place where Bors wouldn't find them.

They had been able to determine what floor Bell and Lyu were on thanks to directions

from the wizened god, who spoke to them through Lido's oculus. Although even the

Dungeon could not control the Juggernaut, the god had sensed its abnormal behavior,

in particular its independent battle cries, and immediately dispatched the rescue team

to the thirty-seventh floor.

"On top of the fact that there's nothing to eat down there, that floor is incredibly huge,

and our fellow monsters are very violent. We almost never spend time there. Plus,

there's no village caretaker like Gryu or Mari down there…"

"I can believe it. The passages and walls and everything are all so huge it made me

dizzy. I had no idea how we'd ever find Bell and Lyu."

"We can thank Bell and Lyu for making it to what you adventurers call the 'main route.'

We wouldn't have found them if they'd been lost in that impenetrable maze."

Since the Xenos didn't know where on the thirty-seventh floor Bell and Lyu were, all

they could do was charge frantically down the main route. That's when they heard the

sounds of the titanic struggle against the Juggernaut and were ultimately able to locate

them. In large part, their rescue was the result of Bell and Lyu's refusal to give up on

returning to the surface.

"Thanks to you guys, we were able to save Bell. Pass on our thanks to that mermaid,

too."

In addition to regular potions, they'd used mermaid lifeblood, a drop item, on an

emergency basis. Mari, who was unable to leave the water's edge, had cut herself and

collected blood to hand over to Lido's party. She hadn't been able to provide much,

since she had recently used her lifeblood to heal Bell during the battle on the twentyseventh floor—and in fact, Lido had had to stop her from stubbornly trying to give too

much when she nearly fainted—but it had nevertheless played a key role in keeping

the heavily wounded Bell and Lyu alive.

Lido had furtively handed the bottles of lifeblood to Welf, and according to Lilly and

Aisha, Lyu's and Bell's lives would have been in danger if they hadn't received it during

their journey to the surface.

"Don't worry about that… But am I right that some of the humans with you don't know

about us? I mean, is everything okay?"

"Well, setting aside the head of Rivira and the tavern waitresses, I think the big guy

and his friends probably figured it out… But their patron deity is a good guy. I'll leave

it up to their familia to decide how to deal with it from here on out."

In all likelihood, some party members had noticed monsters helping Hestia Familia

starting with the big clash on the twenty-seventh floor. However, it seemed Ouka and

his familia members had gotten some hints even before that, starting with Cassandra's

mysterious babbling about her prophetic dream around the time of the battle at

Daedalus Street. Meanwhile, Aisha and Tsubaki already knew about the Xenos. The

main problem would be explaining things to Daphne, but Welf had decided to leave

that task to Miach and Takemikazuchi.

All in all, the public seemed unlikely to get wind of the Xenos as a result of the most

recent events, so Hestia Familia had little grounds to worry they'd be labeled "enemies

of humanity."

"Um, Welf… the elf and Bell, will they be all right?"

The vouivre Wiene had approached him with deep concern just before leaving the

safety point.

"…Yeah. I'll make sure they're healed and Bell is able to see you again. And I'll send the

elf along as a bodyguard when he does."

It seems Welf was unable to resist making a promise to the gentle dragon girl.

After they made it past the twenty-fifth floor, which was still scarred by claw marks,

the adventurers had parted ways with the Xenos and rushed to the surface without a

single rest, according to the young smith.

"Anyway, she already said it, but… thanks for taking care of Bell."

Gesturing to Haruhime, Welf expressed his bashful gratitude to Lyu, who still lay in

bed. Hestia and Lilly had visited earlier and said the same thing. She tried to protest

that she was the one who had gotten him involved to start with, and that it was he who

had saved her, but Welf wouldn't have it.

"You've saved his butt more than once or twice. I've never properly thanked someone

like this… so just assume I've taken all that into consideration and accept my

gratitude."

It was like he was offering proof of the "justice" within her that Bell had talked about.

And so, it was in this way that Welf and the rest of Hestia Familia expressed their

heartfelt gratitude to Lyu.

"Jura Harma… and what other survivors of Rudra Familia finally kicked the bucket.

And Gale Wind died along with them. That's how the story goes."

Aisha visited alone to tell Lyu how the whole incident shook out on the surface.

"You've been cleared of suspicion for the murder in Rivira. Looks like that was a false

accusation to start with… but anyway, everyone seems satisfied with the explanation

that the irregularities on the twenty-seventh floor were also the work of the trainer

Jura Harma. You can thank a big-mouthed oaf for that."

Apparently, there had been a quarrel at the Guild after Lyu and Bell were taken to the

clinic.

"Listen, Gale Wind showed up! But she tried to protect us, and then she croaked! Gale

Wind is really dead this time around!"

"Uh, um, can you please explain that more coherently…?!"

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

The half-healed Bors had charged to the Guild's reception desk, it seems. He'd grabbed

hold of a half-elf employee who simply wanted to confirm the safety of her charge,

along with her receptionist friend, and blabbed the news so loudly a number of other

adventurers at the Guild had overheard.

"A crazy number of my fellow adventurers bought the farm this time around. But it

wasn't Gale Wind's fault! It was those pieces of shit from Rudra Familia! The elf tried

to protect us to the last!"

Bors slammed a piece of Gale Wind's broken wooden sword onto the counter and

carried on with his tirade.

According to Aisha, this was his unique way of repaying her for saving his life.

Apparently, he was trying to protect Lyu, who still had a bounty on her head, as well

as the honor of Gale Wind's name. His words bore more weight than Aisha had

expected. As a second-tier adventurer and head of Rivira, he seemed to have convinced

most of the rogues and hooligans that his story was true. At first, the residents of

Rivira and adventurers in general were suspicious of his sudden change of heart,

especially since he had led the charge for the issuing of Lyu's bounty in the first place,

but in the end they believed him as one of the few survivors of the incident.

More to the point, adventurers trying to repay their debt couldn't say much about his

words or actions since they hinted at a resolution to the whole affair. Plus, it seemed

word had gotten out in Rivira that the elf who helped kill the Black Goliath was actually

Gale Wind.

At this point, Gale Wind was starting to be seen as a friend of justice who had tried to

foil the schemes of the Evils. Lots of people thought it was all an exaggerated tale, but

others believed the stories and were grateful.

Lyu found herself blinking in surprise, but according to Aisha that was how things had

played out.

That wasn't quite the end of the commotion at the Guild, though.

"By the way… she did have a bounty on her head, and I've got some of her property

right here. If you take into consideration the prize money for Jura Harma, I'd say a

third would be fair. Hey, I'd even be happy with a tenth…"

"Um, I would say that is out of the question…"

"I agree. Your logic is insane…"

"Damn it all!!!!!!!!!"

Oddly, Lyu felt reassured when she heard about Bors's argument with the receptionist

over his attempt to slyly squeeze some cash out of the whole affair.

The upper echelons of the Guild accepted the convenient report of Gale Wind's death

with remarkably few questions, as if the will of the deity in charge of the organization

were behind it all. An official announcement was supposed to be made soon. The Guild

also placed a strict gag order on anything concerning the Juggernaut that had killed so

many upper-tier adventurers, as well as the Amphisbaena that had appeared without

regard for the regular spawn interval. As for the Juggernaut, few people even knew it

existed, and even the adventurers who had been in Rivira when the tragedy occurred

had apparently blamed everything on the floor boss.

In any case, this marked the end, by and large, to Lyu's ties with Gale Wind.

"It all worked out nicely, didn't it, old friend of justice? Anyone who still hates you is

likely to give up for real this time, and your violent acts of the past have been

whitewashed."

Since Lyu had been ordered to avoid all strenuous activities, all she could do in

response to the Amazon's taunting grin was tolerate it with a cold look on her face.

And then there was The Benevolent Mistress.

"Mama Mia sure is mad at Ahnya, Chloe, and Runoa for taking off to rescue you."

On another day, Syr came to see her. Apparently, the rescue team hadn't had a day off

work since they got back, which explained why they hadn't come by the clinic since

the day Lyu woke up. Lyu felt a little nervous about meeting a similar fate herself not

too far into the future.

"Also, I have a message for you."

The girl with the blue-gray hair, who had snuck out while her miserably overworked

companions weren't looking, broke into a smile.

"Mama Mia says to tell you we made too much risotto, so you'd better come help us

eat it soon."

Lyu felt a very, very small urge to cry.

To walk under the blue sky.

To Lyu, that simple act seemed like an incredible luxury and joy. Simply to feel the

sunshine pour down on her and the wind blow against her skin.

"The light of the sun…"

"Yes, it feels amazing… and so warm."

As Lyu shaded her eyes with one hand and looked up at the sky, her companion

replied. The boy, who was also looking up at the sky, smiled shyly when she realized

she was looking at him.

Lyu was walking through Orario at Bell's side.

It sounded funny to say they had been discharged, but since their treatment was

finished, they had been allowed to leave Babel. Given that they had spent so many days

alone together wandering the Dungeon, Bell's familia and Lyu's coworkers had

thoughtfully decided to give them some space. It only seemed right that the pair that

had overcome hardship together should walk on the surface again for the first time

together.

Lyu was very happy they had done so. She hoped Bell felt the same.

"Ms. Lyu, are those clothes…?"

"Yes, they're Syr's… Strange, right?"

"Not at all! They look great."

"O-of course they do, because they're Syr's."

Syr had been kind enough to leave a change of clothes when she came to visit, since

she realized Lyu probably wouldn't want to leave the clinic wearing her waitress

uniform. The simple white dress decorated with flowery lace suited the elf Lyu well.

Lyu pressed the hem down around her knees as she answered Bell brusquely—

although in a high-pitched, excited voice.

"Is your left arm all right?"

"Yes. They told me not to exercise it, but it has the same range of movement as before.

It's like it was never even injured…"

Bell looked down at his arm as he walked. What had been a horrible mess before was

now back to its original shape. At the very least, it seemed to have healed perfectly as

far as Lyu could tell. The bandage was gone and in its place were metal restraints at

his elbow, wrist, and finger joints. It reminded her of a gauntlet with parts cut out, or

an incomplete artificial arm.

"Actually, they said they couldn't fix it… so they practically had to remake the whole

thing."

"…I didn't know they could do that."

"Apparently they can…"

The medical staff had only been able to do so because all bones and everything else

making up his arm were all preserved inside the scarf he'd wrapped around it in place

of a bandage. If he'd lost any of that, he would have had to replace it with an artificial

arm like Nahza.

"My arm is still the same length, too," he said, holding both arms together and looking

at them. Lyu recalled Amid's face and thought that she wasn't called the best healer in

the city for nothing.

"By the way, how much did it cost?"

"Um… there were about eight zeroes in a row…"

"…!!"

"Oh, no, it's fine. The Guild, or I think probably Ouranos, covered it because it was an

emergency! And Hermes had his familia gather the materials for the brace…!"

As Bell hurried to explain the situation to the shocked Lyu, they continued to walk

through the city side by side.

The wind brushing against their cheeks felt lovely.

The sunlight seemed to be washing their bodies clean after spending so much time in

the darkness.

The smiles of the children passing by were contagious.

The peaceful noises of the street mingled with the gentle atmosphere of the surface.

They took it all in with their whole bodies, wandering wherever their fancy led them.

Passing through the tangle of streets, they crossed a bridge spanning a canal and then

climbed a back-alley stairway, finally emerging onto a hilltop that overlooked western

Orario.

"I never knew this place was here…"

"Yes… I used to come here with Alize."

Alize Lovell enjoyed high places.

She had often taken Lyu to hilltops like this or climbed onto the rooftops of buildings

where they would talk surrounded by blue sky. Just like Bell and Lyu were doing now.

"…Five years ago, Lady Astrea told me to forget about justice."

Lyu spoke quietly as she stood by the banister and looked out on the city. She was

speaking both to Bell, who listened quietly, and to the endless blue sky, where her

voice carried on the wind.

"I thought she was excommunicating me. I thought she'd lost hope in me after seeing

how consumed I was by vengeance… that she'd only let me keep the mark of her

Blessing on my back out of pity."

That was how Lyu had interpreted it at the time, thinking she was accepting her deity's

will. She thought the fact that Astrea had disappeared from the city and only sent her

an occasional short letter meant that she, Lyu, had been stripped of the right to act in

the name of justice.

Bell leaned forward as if to say something, but Lyu's next words stopped him.

"But… I was wrong."

She stared off into the distance, a smile on her lips.

She was right.

Astrea had not abandoned Lyu.

She had been watching over her body and soul.

Vengeance could never be justice. But the will to put an end to vengeance and break

the cycle of hatred could become justice.

If Astrea had told Lyu that vengeance never created anything, however, what would

have happened to Lyu?

She would certainly have fallen apart.

Unable to claim revenge, unable to forgive herself, she would have given in to the

desire to end her miserable life.

The goddess must have known that from the beginning. Certainly she understood it

better than Lyu did. And so she had gone so far as to forsake the justice she presided

over for the sake of protecting Lyu.

"She told me to forget about justice for my own sake…"

The pillar of the familia had turned against her own truth for the sake of her follower.

She had carried half the burden of Lyu's vengeance.

But that was not all.

The goddess had believed that when the flames of vengeance had burned out and

turned to ash, Lyu would rise again like a fairy spreading her wings as she rose from

the dead. She had believed that justice would come to live once again in Lyu's breast.

"I have you to thank for everything."

"Huh?"

Lyu turned slowly from the banister and faced Bell. She narrowed her eyes at the wideeyed Bell.

"You told me I still had justice within me. You showed me the ties to Astrea that still

remain inside… and you showed me what my familia left for me."

Bell had helped her realize.

The justice that persisted within her still connected her to Astrea and the rest of her

familia.

He had helped her remember.

When the haze of regret cleared from her memories, she recalled that on a certain day

five years earlier when they parted ways, her goddess had cried, and smiled.

That was how Lyu knew she was not wrong.

"Alize protected me, Syr rescued me… and you opened my eyes."

Alize had led her forward.

Syr had saved her when she was charred by the flames of vengeance and had shown

her the future that her familia members had left her.

And Bell… he had given her the courage to face the past she had not been able to cut

loose. He had stood by and supported her the whole time.

Everything was ongoing.

The people who had taken her hands in theirs were the ones she had to thank for her

life. She no longer tried to conceal the feelings of gratitude overflowing from her heart.

"There's something I still haven't told you."

Beneath the warm sunlight and the clear blue sky, she turned toward Bell.

"Thank you, Bell."

And then she smiled.

"You're a human I can respect."

A smile blossomed like a beautiful white flower on her petite lips.

Bell stared at her as the elf's smile pulled him in.

A wind blew around them, rustling the pure-white hem of her dress and tousling his

white hair. A smile spread over his face. He blushed shyly as kindness filled his eyes.

"Your smile is so beautiful right now," he said.

"Huh…?"

"More beautiful than ever before. Much more than that other time."

He was thinking back to the day when Lyu had stood before the Astrea Familia grave

markers, surrounded by forest and crystal. Lost in reminiscence, he smiled like an

innocent child.

"It makes me so happy to see you smile like that."

Bell's words were as pure as snow. He was as happy as if the change had been his own.

Lyu felt her heart leap as she looked at him. Her face grew hot. She looked down,

although she was unsure why she did.

"…Lyu, Ms. Lyu…?"

Noticing her strange behavior, Bell leaned toward her and spoke worriedly into her

ear.

That was enough to make her heart leap again.

Strange. I'm having palpitations. What is going on?

Flustered by her unruly emotions and failing to think clearly, she blurted out the

honest truth.

"I-I can't look you in the face…"

"Huh? Why?!"

"I-I don't know…"

That was the honest truth.

Why did her cheeks grow hot when she looked at him?

Why was her heart abuzz?

She had no idea why she couldn't look directly at those rubellite eyes.

"B-Bell! I'll see you later!"

Unable to tolerate it any longer, she took off running.

Left behind in surprise, Bell soon took his leave as well.

It was no good.

Even though she ran and ran, pressing both hands to her chest like an innocent girl,

she could not hide the excitement rumbling deep in her heart.

"What in the world…?!"

Lyu hadn't noticed.

When had her lips begun to call his name?

When had her white skin begun to flush so red?

What was this feeling blossoming in her heart?

"Oh, Alize, what in the world should I do…?!"

Her face beet red, she ran with the wind through the busy city streets, begging her

beloved friend for advice.

Don't let him escape!

From beyond the blue sky, she thought she heard the bright voice of a smiling,

confident girl answer her.