"Ugh... Raphne! Can you see anything from over there?"

"...Nothing."

"There's nothing here either."

"Ugh! Where on earth is that darned guide rabbit hiding?!"

The three of them were searching the forest.

Including me, there were four of us total, all of us crouched down in the grass, desperately looking for something like students who had lost their contact lenses.

"Ken! Do you have any kind of tool to easily catch an animal? You can make something like that, right?"

"Uh... no..."

Why does she think I'm Doraemon or something?

I do have a spatial pocket, but it's filled with spare food, travel gear, and nothing but a variety of weapon materials.

I don't have any kind of convenient tool like that.

"Ugh... Why do we have to find this sacred goddess's temple by chasing after a rabbit..."

Emily, exhausted from this seemingly futile search for the rabbit, sat down in the grass with a sigh.

I was trying to think of something to encourage her when—

"…Hmm?"

Beyond the grass where Emily was sitting, I spotted a shape just like the one we had been shown back in the city—a small creature with white fur, droopy long ears, and a red gem that looked like an eye on its forehead.

And lastly, a line of fur running straight from the crown of its head to its tail.

"Aha, the guide rabbit! I found it!"

Known as the guide rabbit.

This was the creature adventurers used to guide them to certain dungeons. As soon as I saw it, I pointed at it with a trembling hand and shouted.

"R-Raphne!"

"I'm on it!"

Raphne, who had unmatched speed compared to any other being in this world, responded instantly to my call. A massive surge of mana erupted from her, activating her innate skill [Instant Speed].

In the blink of an eye, the guide rabbit was struggling in her grasp, its ears tightly held.

"Yay! I got it!"

"Great job, Raphne!"

"Hehe, you could praise me a little more, you know."

"Sure, sure, you did amazing. Raphne, you're the best!"

Emily was the first to leap up joyously when she saw the guide rabbit, which had taken us half a day to capture.

I rewarded Raphne by ruffling her hair gently as she beamed, asking for more praise.

"So now we just have to follow it to the ruins."

Mary, who had been searching a bit farther away, came over with a slight smile.

She must have been working hard herself; a few leaves were tangled in her neat, blue bobbed hair.

'Finally, we're almost at the last stage of making the holy sword...'

After wrapping up the short journey with Sierra from the previous village, I had received information about the ‘Tears of the Goddess’ as payment from Head Priest Probane for escorting Sierra.

The Tears of the Goddess was the name of a pond located somewhere in the Lilias Kingdom in the past.

It was said that the pond had been blessed by the goddess, making the surrounding land fertile.

It was such a sacred place, filled with divine power, that it was well known among the priests.

We traveled to that very land, in the holy city of Venarium, located in the eastern part of the Lilias Kingdom.

Though getting to Venarium was smooth, there was a problem when we arrived.

Like many other ancient temples, this legendary pond had a temple built around it as a monument.

But after a massive outbreak of monsters in the past, people abandoned the area, and it turned into a dungeon.

'Or so they say.'

No matter how much the creators of dungeons loved the concept of temple-type dungeons, this kind of backstory made me think that the Church wasn't valuing the temple of the goddess properly.

"So, what do we do now?"

"We tie a sturdy string to it and let it go, and then just follow the string."

In any case, we had business in the dungeon that had once been the temple.

Thankfully, the temple containing the Tears of the Goddess was a famous dungeon, well-known in the region, often visited by adventurers.

After people abandoned the temple grounds, monsters drawn by the goddess's divine power had infested the area, making it a popular hunting spot for adventurers.

"We found it! Here it is..."

"This location... makes maps pretty useless, huh."

"Yeah, we definitely needed the rabbit to find it."

After we found the guide rabbit, we managed to locate the temple entrance without much difficulty.

With the forest being a tangled maze, the structure made it nearly impossible to find the entrance without the rabbit's unique senses.

That adventurer back in town was right—finding the rabbit was faster than relying on a map.

"Doesn't look like anyone's here."

"Seems that way."

Raphne and Emily, ever the curious pair, advanced ahead with smiles full of excitement.

Mary and I followed them into the entrance.

Just like other temple-type dungeons, the first floor consisted of a grand hall, with an entrance leading underground.

Though there was a second floor, it was mostly ornamental.

Once you descended underground, the real dungeon began.

"So, as always, Raphne and I will take the lead. Mary, you watch the rear, and Emily, you support in the middle."

Given our experience with places like Tarlos's Tower, a dungeon of this level felt easy. Everyone confidently agreed.

'But I need to stay vigilant.'

I still remembered the humiliation I suffered during the day when I had gone to retrieve the cursed sword's blueprint from a similar underground temple with Diena.

I didn't want to scare the group unnecessarily, so I kept the tension to myself as we headed toward the dungeon entrance.

At that moment—

"U-um..."

We heard an unfamiliar voice calling from the entrance of the first floor where we had entered the temple.

Just as we were about to head downstairs, we all turned simultaneously to look.

Standing at the entrance was none other than a young girl.

She seemed about elementary school age.

"C-could I join you?!"

The girl, wearing a frightened expression, cautiously asked us.

"Hmm, so, Lize, you live alone with your mother?"

"Y-yes..."

The young girl who had followed us after we caught the rabbit introduced herself as Lize.

We were currently walking with her on the first underground floor of the temple.

The monsters here were low-level types—bats, giant rats, and spiders.

We could afford to chat casually while fighting off these weak monsters and learning about Lize's situation.

"You came all this way for the Tears of the Goddess to help your mother? That's very brave of you."

"...Sniff."

Apparently, she was trying to obtain the Tears of the Goddess as an ingredient to make medicine for her sick mother.

Since the pond water was filled with divine power, it could help cure almost any illness.

"But it's dangerous for a kid to come all the way here. Wouldn't it have been better to hire someone for the job?"

Unlike Emily, who was full of curiosity, Mary spoke with a worried look, giving Lize some advice.

The little girl, who had been walking beside Emily with a frightened expression, lowered her head even more, her voice barely above a whisper.

"I-I... I don’t have any money..."

It was a common story.

"Wow... Mary, I didn't think you'd be the type to mercilessly dig into a little girl's sensitive spots."

"As expected of Dedris Academy's Ice Queen."

Seeing Lize about to burst into tears, Raphne and Emily teamed up to tease Mary.

Mary was typically someone who kept her guard up, and the other two were eager to take this opportunity to poke fun at her.

"Ugh, I-I didn’t mean it like that... S-sorry."

Mary, seeing Lize's downtrodden face and the teasing reactions of the other two, genuinely felt guilty, nervously fidgeting with her fingers.

"Hey, you two. Lay off Mary."

"K-Ken... I..."

"It’s okay, she didn’t mean it."

Though it wasn’t that serious, I thought it was a bit much for the two of them to team up to tease Mary, so I gently patted her head while scolding the other two.

"Ooooh! You're defending her just because she’s your lover!"

"Yeah! Ken's always soft on his own girls!"

You two are my lovers too, you know.

Fortunately, seeing Mary, usually the one with the coldest expression, looking downcast seemed to relax Lize a bit as well. Her gloomy expression gave way to a slight smile.

"M-Mister... Your name is Ken... Mister Ken, right?"

At that moment, Lize peeked up at me from beside Emily, her cheeks blushing a faint pink as she asked.

"Yeah, Ken Feinstein. Pretty easy name to remember, right?"

Lize, who thankfully no longer seemed scared, gave a small smile and nodded.

Right after I introduced myself, Raphne wrapped herself around my arm and looked at Lize, smiling brightly as she asked.

"Hey, Lize, which of us do you think suits this big brother the best?"

Maybe Raphne was trying to make the atmosphere a bit friendlier, and it seemed like a way to make Lize more comfortable.

...Or maybe she was just genuinely curious.

For the first time in a while, we found ourselves navigating a dungeon with someone other than our usual group of four, and we were having fun chatting while making our way underground.

"Ah! There's the path to the third floor!"

For a party like ours, which could be considered S-rank, the monsters in this dungeon were far too easy.

With me and Raphne leading the charge, we quickly disposed of the monsters, making our way further underground.

Soon, we found ourselves standing before the entrance to the third floor.

"Usually, there’s a guardian on the third floor, so everyone, just be prepared."

The beings called guardians in this world were like dungeon bosses in games.

Usually, on the third floor, there was a boss.

Defeating that boss would probably grant us access to the pond of the Tears of the Goddess.

If not, we’d just have to search the dungeon further.

With that in mind, I warned the group, whose tension had eased a bit, and we headed toward the entrance to the third floor.

'...Hmm?'

For a brief moment.

I felt as though Lize was smiling more brightly than before.

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