My Room Has Become a Dungeon's Rest Area (LN)

「Are you selling that child?」

「Yeah.」

Even in this world, selling children was a crime. Slaves existed, but slave children had to be sold with their families.

Also, slaves were employed as serfs or servants. At the very least, they had these rights. But there were no laws underground.

There was anger in Ria’s voice, but – as if she were following Deet’s advice – she didn’t seem to be intending to provoke a quarrel.

「I’ll buy him. How much is he?」

「Hang on a second, Ria!」

Deet tried to stop her, but Ria crouched down so that her eyes would meet the boy’s, and spoke to him.

「Everything will be all right now. Don’t worry.」

「……snff.」

When he saw Ria’s smile, the boy stopped crying.

Even though I didn’t really want to know, I asked, 「What are you going to do with the kid?」

「I’ll send him to one of the orphanages that I support financially.」

Come to think of it, Ria did give money to several orphanages.

It’ll probably work out, then. Ria drew a leather pouch out of her breast pocket and took out several gold coins.

But the boy refused her offer.

「An orphanage? I can’t. My little sister in the Thieves’ Guild will be all alone.」

「Huh?」

「My sister and I were taken in by the Thieves’ Guild. We live here…… But that guy from the Bodyguards’ Guild, he……」

I looked at the guy from the Bodyguards’ Guild in his tank top. He had a vulgar smile on his face.

This kid might be a slave, but he’s not a helpless orphan with no-one to look after him.

「Hehehe. You shouldn’t’ve stepped onto our turf.」

Even I scowled at the man. Deet carried on saying,「Please don’t fight. If you fight with the Bodyguard’s Guild on the first floor, you’ll never be able to explore the dungeon again.」

「I’m gonna sell this brat off to a male brothel.」

「Wait. I said I’d buy him, didn’t I?」

It was clear from Ria’s voice that she was angry, but she handed the whole bag of gold coins to the man.

Getting ourselves noticed by the Bodyguard’s Guild on this floor will get us into trouble, after all.

But……the man brushed aside Ria’s bag of gold.

「I don’t want it. If I sell the brat to some old pervert, I’ll get at least twice that.」

Bastard! I don’t even care if the Bodyguard’s Guild comes after us.

We can always escape to the surface, and I don’t think the Adventurer’s Guild would put a bounty out on a human just for a brawl.

In other words, I just have to not kill him. He’s gonna taste the iron rod of justice!

「Hey, I told you not to get into a fight!」Deet shouted.

Apparently my anger was obvious.

I ignored her and felt about my waist for the iron rod.

「Huh?」

When I looked down at my waist, I saw that the sword had disappeared, and only the scabbard remained.

I looked around, wondering what had happened, and realised that Deet was holding it in her hand.

Tank Top let out a wail, clutching his forehead. 「Arrrrgh! What’re you doing? You bastard!」

「I told you not to get into a fight! H-huh?」

Apparently, Deet had, without realising, drawn the sword from my belt and swung it at Tank Top.

Ria and I congratulated her at the same time.

「Well done, Deet!」

「That was an amazing overhead strike, Deet!」

「Ahhhh! What have I done?!」

Blood streaming from his forehead, Tank Top shouted, 「Brothers of the Mercenaries’ Guild, are you there?」

He seemed to be calling out to his comrades. But it was all right.

I couldn’t see anyone in the vicinity with the sword and shield symbol on them.

「Ack!?」

Rough-looking men began to appear one after another.

Using my Person Appraisal skill, I could see that they were Level 10 at most, so it would be an easy fight for Ria and Deet.

But if they’re fighting against this many people, someone’s sure to get killed.

If that happens, we’ll have to go on the run.

At the very least, it was a big problem.

I readied my pickaxe. What should I do?

That’s when it happened. I heard something that sounded like an explosion, and the area was engulfed in smoke.

The smoke had something peppery in it that made my eyes sting.

「Ack, ack! What the hell?!」

Choking and unable to see, I heard an unfamiliar woman’s voice saying, 「This way!」

At the same time, someone grabbed my arm. I ran in the direction that they were pulling me.

We passed the shop front, hidden by the smokescreen. My eyes were still stinging, and I couldn’t see properly.

But I realised that the person pulling me along was an amazingly well-proportioned, muscular woman. I could tell this because she was wearing a black sleeveless crop top and shorts which showed off the muscles of her arms, thighs and butt, and her tail……

「A t-tail?!」

「I saved you, but it bothers you that I have a tail?」

「Oh, no, sorry. It’s just that my eyes were drawn to your tail. I was surprised, that’s all.」

「Huh?!」

「……I mean, thank you.」

I figured she must be helping me if she was taking me away from that place.

When my sight goes back to normal, I can get a better look at her tail…… I mean, my surroundings.

I wanted to ask Shizuku what was going on, but I couldn’t, in case she was discovered by the woman running alongside me.

The woman stopped suddenly. Just as I was wondering what had happened, I realised there was an iron door in front of us.

Perhaps this is……

「It’s Cat. Open up.」

「What’s the password?」

「‘Steal from the fat pig’.」

The woman was speaking in the direction of the door. There must have been someone on the other side of it.

The iron door slid upwards, just like the one on the fifth floor.

「We’ll hide out here for a bit.」

「That’s great, but what about the two women I was with, and the boy?」

「It’s all right. My friends will have taken them off in different directions so they wouldn’t be pursued. Someone will bring them here later.」

I wasn’t sure whether that was true, but Shizuku said in a small voice that only I could hear, 「Deet was being pulled along, too. Ria fought back, but when the person who was trying to help her spoke to her, she agreed to go along with them for now. The boy, too.」

As always, Shizuku comes in handy.

「Well, if you insist.」

They all seemed to be very safety-conscious. The button to open and close the ‘room’ was on the inside, meaning that no-one could shut you in; you had to shut yourself in.

So she can’t be intending to imprison me.

The man who had been on the other side of the iron door stepped out, and the woman who had helped me went inside.

When I had entered, the woman closed the iron door.

My eyesight had mostly recovered. The inside of the ‘room’ looked like a warehouse, with wooden boxes and various other things piled up inside it.

It would have been pitch black were it not for the lantern that the woman took off the man.

「Sit down wherever you can.」

「Th-thanks.」

I sat on top of a wooden box. The woman sat down on a box opposite me.

She put down the lamp behind her and a little to the side.

This meant that her face was backlit. She was also wearing a hood, so I couldn’t see her face very well.

Instead, I could see her slender arms, thighs, and stomach. She had recently been running, so her muscles stood out to me, but her feminine flesh was also illuminated by the gentle glow of the lamp.

Her chest, however, looked pretty flat. I couldn’t see her tail properly, either, since I was looking at her from the front.

「What a shame!」

But there are people who like that. I like both.

「A shame? What is?」

「O-oh, nothing.」

「I see……」

That was all the woman said before she fell silent.

We didn’t talk. I couldn’t tell because of the lighting, but I felt like I was being watched.

To someone looking from the other direction, I would have been in direct light.

What should I say? Or rather, why did she help me?

Since she’s able to use the ‘room’, she must be a member of one of the underground guilds.

She helped the boy, so maybe the Thieves’ Guild?

「Er-erm, are you with the Thieves’ Guild?」she asked me.

「Me? I’m not with any guild in particular.」

It seemed that the woman was a member of the Thieves’ Guild. That means there must be a way for everyone to know that she’s a member. But I can’t see anything on her like the sword and shield symbol that the Bodyguards’ Guild have.