“Seriously… you’re already tired?” I said.
“My legs are short! And I don’t walk a lot!” Terra whined.
“We don’t have time for this!” Carmine said, “Leave the brat. She’ll only try to get in the way as we take the guardian!”
“Y-you! Who says you can have the guardian! I won’t allow it!” Terra shook her fists.
I moved up to Terra, who raised her arms defensively in front of her. Turning around, I fell to one knee and put my hands behind my back.
“Come on.”
“Wh-what is this?” She demanded.
“Get on, I’ll carry you!” I said, looking back at her. “Hurry, or I will leave you behind.”
I didn’t know why, but I didn’t want to leave her for the bandits to find. If she was just a spirit of this dungeon, she technically could just disappear and reappear somewhere else. That should be the case, but she walked alongside us. There was no floating or appearing and disappearing. She walked with heavy steps, thumping along next to the other girls. Strangely enough, I wasn’t receiving nearly as many angry looks from my girls when I dealt with Terra compared to Carmine.
In fact, the girls seemed to like Terra, offering her a few words and even complimenting her hair. The treatment difference between the two women was truly outstanding. I couldn’t even imagine why the girls were so particular when it came to these two women. I guess Carmine was a little rough around the edges. However, Terra didn’t come off as trustworthy either. Still, after looking around awkwardly, she received a nod of encouragement from Lydia and then climbed on my back.
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Damn, she was heavy! I almost fell back. She was a small girl, even shorter than Miki. She had no chest to speak of. It wouldn’t be fair to call her a loli, but she definitely was a short, flat-chested girl in her late teens. So, where did all of the weight come from? I just imagined I was training. Before gaining all these levels, I definitely couldn’t have lifted this girl. I supposed I should focus on how much fitter I was now, rather than anything about her.
Lifting Terra up, I began to run to catch up to Carmine, who hadn’t slowed her pace for that. We soon found ourselves on the 15th floor. We did it a bit faster than the last five floors. I would have skipped the kiosk room, but we ended up walking right past it. I didn’t have the girls register, but I glanced at it and found the mural instantly. Only one image appeared. It was a picture of a couple. The looked to be magicians. In their arms was a baby girl.
“Mother… Father…” Terra’s gentle voice came from behind me.
“The baby… That’s you, Terra?”
“…” My question was met with silence.
Perhaps, given that she was some kind of being of the dungeon, she didn’t even have those memories. I could only see very small scattered parts of the whole story, so it was kind of frustrating. It seemed like there was a powerful magician couple. Some horrific event happened and something they created destroyed a lot of villages. They ended up having a child, Terra. Then, they built Terra some kind of powerful guardian. Or perhaps… it was the guardian who ended up attacking and killing Terra. Given what I knew about these dungeons, that sounded about right. The magician’s created the guardian to protect their daughter, but one day it went out of control and killed the one it was supposed to protect.
Didn’t that mean that the guardian wasn’t safe? Furthermore… what would happen if I brought Terra, the guardian’s true owner, into the same room as the guardian that once killed her? The only way to find out the truth was to reach the last floor. I abandoned the mural and ran to catch up with the group. The six of us continued down into the darkness while the Bandit King followed in close pursuit.