I let out a sigh and gave a wry smile as I rephrased my words.

“...Sorry… …You saved me… …Instructor Ituka…”

“Orunkaim, you’re safe too?”

The girl pinned beneath me stretched out her arm from between my legs and waved.

“Heeey.”

Oh, right. I had completely forgotten—I was on top of Miku.

“I see. That’s good.”

As I moved my body aside, Miku wriggled and lifted her upper body.

“Aww. If it were El-tan, I wouldn’t have minded staying like that a little longer.”

“…What the hell are you saying to a ten-year-old child…”

Seriously. Kids these days.

“You should say things like that with a little more embarrassment. It makes me happy.”

“That’s a tall order.”

Give me a break.

Lili’s gaze was stabbing into me again. That creeping chill down my spine was unbearable.

Before I knew it, the iron doors leading to the third layer had been opened, and the other instructors were pouring in one after another. Judging by their reactions, this really had been an accident during a curriculum exercise. Well, of course it was. If something like that monster had been part of the required coursework, no number of lives would have been enough.

Instructors capable of healing magic attended to the severely injured Ilga and Oujin. They were placed on stretchers and carried away while receiving magical treatment.

Fix, finally released from the healers, collapsed onto his knees. Even while we had been fighting that monster, Fix Augus had continued treating Ilga.

For someone who had been spouting timid nonsense earlier, he had quite the guts. Just like Seneca Margis. He might turn out to be something special too.

Void, who also appeared gravely wounded, refused the instructors’ treatment and stood up on his own. Not only that, he was helping his classmates, who were too weak-kneed to stand.

How tough was this guy? He had the body of someone far beyond his teenage years.

By the way, the crushed right eye of mine was also healed by the school’s medical instructor. Apparently, wounds with exposed areas are easier to treat with magic. My vision was still blurry with a reddish haze, but it was supposed to return to normal in time.

Watching over everyone’s condition, Lili turned to me and asked:

“Is everyone accounted for?”

I nodded at her words.

“Yeah. All twenty members of Class One… It wouldn’t be accurate to say everyone is safe, but at least we all made it out alive.”

Right after saying that, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“...Haha, hahaha.”

“What’s so funny?”

Oh, nothing. It just reminded me of returning from the battlefield in my past life. I wonder how many times Blythe had this same conversation with Lili.

The Blythe faction always returned together. From every battlefield.

“It’s nothing. I just felt relieved, and it made me laugh a little.”

“I see. That’s good.”

After a slight hesitation, Lili unexpectedly lowered her head to me.

“I’m sorry. The key to the iron door leading to the third layer was different from the entrance key, so I had to rush back to the school to retrieve it as soon as the collapse happened. But I never imagined this wasn’t just an accident…”

So she hadn’t realized that monster was there.

I nodded in response.

“Ask Seneca about what happened here. I’m too exhausted to explain.”

I think Seneca Margis would make a good class representative. The unexpected dark horse might be Void, though. Not that he wouldn’t try to flee the responsibility.

“Got it. —Orunkaim, can you walk?”

“Yeees, I can waaaalk.”

“Then can you and Margis split up and lead those who can move to the dungeon exit? Help the injured along the way.”

Miku glanced at me for a moment, then reluctantly answered.

“...Okaaay. —Well, see you later. No cheating, okay?”

“I don’t recall entering such a relationship.”

Don’t say weird things in front of Lili, you cat-girl.

Miku stood up. She was covered in scrapes, but her steps were firm. As she was leaving, I called out to her back.

“Miku.”

“Hm?”

“In the end, you saved me. Thanks.”

That moment when I was about to be slammed against the wall. If Miku hadn’t intervened, this ten-year-old’s frail body might not have survived.

Her chest wasn’t large, but it had definitely cushioned the blow. Hopefully, she didn’t break any ribs.

“No problem~! Then from tomorrow, we’re a couple!”

“Don’t be ridiculous. That makes no sense. Besides, I saved you too. And don’t make me, a guy, say something as lame as claiming credit. Try to be a better woman.”

“I was joking~!”

See? Now Lili was looking at me like I was some precocious child again. That spine-tingling gaze.

Waving dismissively, I watched as Miku cheerfully clasped her hands behind her back and ascended the stairs to the upper levels.

Before I realized it, all my classmates had already left. The only ones still sitting on the fourth layer were Lili and me.

Lili murmured.

“Eremia… You don’t look like you can walk.”

“Hah! Nonsense. Of course I can walk.”

I forced myself to stand, but my knees wobbled and buckled beneath me, sending me tumbling onto my backside.

“...Nngh.”

A weird sound escaped my mouth. Damn this child’s body.

Lili crouched in front of me and turned her back toward me.

After a brief moment of thought, I realized her intent—and my face ignited in embarrassment.

“Absolutely not! I refuse to do something so humiliating!”

“Even if you’re ten, you’re still a boy, huh? But didn’t I tell you? No matter how much you resist, I will do exactly what Master Blythe did.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! You climbed onto my back pretty quickly yourself!”

“...Huh?”

Ah…

I… I let that slip…

“N-No, that was… um, from a book.”

Sweat beaded on my forehead as I clutched my head.

“That man even wrote about things like that?”

“Y-Yeah. P-Perhaps… in a diary?”

Lili tilted her head.

“Even though I lived in almost the same room as him, I never saw him writing anything. If such a diary exists, I’d love to read it.”

Like hell it exists. Why would I ever write something as tedious as a diary? I’ve never written one in my entire life.

“Anyway, I can walk. I don’t need help.”

Once again, I attempted to stand—but I just couldn’t feel my feet touching the ground. My knees lacked weight, as if my joints had turned into cotton.

“Nngh.”

I fell.

Almost cried. Because I was ten.

Lili, with a hand to her cheek, looked at me like a troubled mother. Then, she presented an outrageous choice.

“Which would you prefer: being forcibly princess-carried in front of your classmates, or quietly accepting a piggyback ride? Blythe did both to me, by the way.”

With these legs, there was no way I could escape. I could barely even walk, let alone run.

Still on all fours, I took a few seconds to think. Then, with a voice drenched in humiliation, I squeezed out my answer.

“………………Piggyback… please…”

The satisfied expression on Lili’s face at that moment—I would never forget it for the rest of my life.