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

「Keeping them underground and teaching them to steal is no good for their education! There’s no purpose to it. So surely we can take these children to an orphanage on the surface.」

「I suppose so.」

Crap. Deet was reluctantly agreeing with her.

I tried to reason with Ria. 「Looking after two kids is a lot of responsibility, you know.」

「We’d only be taking them as far as the orphanage, then the orphanage will look after them.」

Hmmm. Well, if we can get to the surface safely, it might be all right.

As for what Nick himself thought…… As far as I could see, he was just clinging to Ria. I looked at Miri.

「Huh? Oh, um… When we hear about children who’ve lost their parents, we go and gather them up. I don’t think kids just turn up at the Thieves’ Guild or anything. But it’s all right in your case, because you’re adults……」

Ria glared sternly at Miri, who sank into silence.

「Then it’s decided. We’ll wait for the fuss to die down, then escape to the surface with Nick and his little sister.」

「S-sure.」

I had no choice but to give an affirmative answer. I was still worried that the Bodyguard’s Guild might pick a fight with us on the return journey, but I decided to cross that bridge when we came to it.

「In that case, Miri, please tell us a safe route for getting to the surface. Bring Nick’s little sister to us as well.」

「B-but… Can’t you stay for another day?」

「Nope, I’m sick of being underground.」

I want to be under a blue sky again soon.

「Didn’t you want to survey the other rooms?」

「Our biggest priority is getting to the orphanage – no, having the Adventurer’s Guild take down the order to hunt down Enami. If we happen to meet again, we can count on you, right?」

 I couldn’t forget our actual objective. Going on a trip with Ria and Deet through the other world…… No, rescuing Enami. It certainly wasn’t some sort of real-life fantasy game.

In any case, the cat girl had enjoyed herself.

「It’s Guy. Steal from the fat pig.」

At that moment, the man from the Thieves’ Guild came to talk to us.

Surely that lot from the Bodyguards’ Guild have dispersed by now.

Well, it’s time to leave here and head for a new adventure.

「Miss Cat, the guys from the Bodyguards’ Guild have already…… What? Okay, gotcha.」

Miri and Guy were talking about something.

She must have ordered him to bring Nick’s little sister here. That would be one matter settled.

Miri came back over to us. She was kind of skipping.

She looked at me and smiled sweetly.

「Listen. Guy says the boss of our guild wants to thank us for saving Nick. Follow me.」

The boss of the Thieves’ Guild, which is a bunch of ruffians, wants to thank us?

‘The boss of the Thieves’ Guild’. Meeting such a frightening person and being thanked by them didn’t sound fun.

「No, we don- mmmmmf!」

I tried to turn down Miri’s request, but Deet covered my mouth with her hand from behind. In a low voice, she said, 「Don’t say scary things.」

「Huh? What do you mean?」

「You were about to refuse to meet the boss, weren’t you?」

「So what if I was?」

「People like this are obsessed with their honour. Especially the current boss of the Thieves’ Guild.」

It was said that the current leader of the Guild was such a mysterious figure that no-one even knew their name. They had inherited their position from the founder, and were called a second-generation Dorothea.

They had a big influence on the bandits on the surface, too.

「If you piss off a leader who commands eight hundred bandits, you’re going to be in trouble.」

「Eight hundred?!」

「Yep.」

They might be the most powerful force amongst the underground guilds, but I didn’t even know that many people could live on the first level. It’s bigger than I thought.

I’d ask her how many times the size of the Tokyo Dome it is, but I don’t think I’d get an answer.

「Pissing them off isn’t a good idea. If they like us, it will actually be much easier for us to move around. Let’s go and give them a proper greeting.」

Even Ria, who hated the Thieves’ Guild, didn’t argue; she just made a disgusted face.

She patted Nick on the head. Perhaps she’d decided that, when it came to taking custody of Nick, it would be better to go and greet the Guild leader and go through the proper channels.

「Well, Miri, we’d like to meet them, so please take us there.」

「Okay!」

We left through the iron door, following Miri.

The number of hooded men had increased without our realising. Well, this is territory that the Thieves’ Guild controls.

We went along a back street that ran parallel to a main street with shops standing in a row.

Unlike the Merchants’ Guild district that we’d just seen, it was rundown.

「The Thieves’ Guild is larger than the Merchants’ Guild, but not as good at business, right? It can’t be very well-off.」

Ria and Deet agreed strongly, but I had a slightly different idea.

「Hmm…… Perhaps it needs a redevelopment.」

「Redevelopment?」

Oh. Maybe the concept of ‘redevelopment’ doesn’t exist in this world.

「Um, yeah. When my hometown got redeveloped, they poured a lot of money into an area that had become old-fashioned, and put things in place to make it more convenient and more modern.」

「Oh? What do you mean by ‘modern’?」

「Hmm, let’s see. In the case of my hometown, the main issue was making it more convenient, but the problem with the first level is probably public order, right?」

「Yeah.」

「Then put all the shops, restaurants, houses and everything together into one big building. Don’t let anyone who’s drunk or addicted to drugs into the building, and have it securely patrolled by members of the Thieves’ Guild…… That kind of thing.」

Ria and Deet joined in the conversation.

「That sounds wonderful! Children would feel safer, too.」

「If it went well, more customers from the surface would come here as well.」

Miri stopped in her tracks.

「Th-Thor, please tell me more about ‘redevelopment’!」

「Huh? What? Umm…… For example, the authorities – so, here, that’s the Thieves’ Guild, since they control the area – could join together with private, I mean, surface companies, or something? And then you’d be able to construct that big building I was talking about. In return, you’d allow the companies to trade there, and so on.」

Miri was listening to me with such a serious face that I put my all into what I was saying.

「What’s more, it would be easier for companies to get hold of goods from the dungeon. You could have businesses regulated for exclusive concessions to the aristocracy, the monarchy, and the church. The Thieves’ Guild could co-sign on them – you’d be very popular with big businesses. You’d be able to get part of their profits, too.」

I didn’t know exactly how the surface of this world was governed, but I suggested it anyway.

「If we teamed up with big companies on the surface, we might be able to outdo the Merchants’ Guild in business……」

「If you get those with financial power on your side, you’ll be able to thoroughly outdo them.」

「Thank you, Thor! The guild members and children who can’t do any other job besides stealing will be able to eat their fill. It’s just as I expected.」

「Well, if you do actually do it, there’ll be a lot of challenges as well.」

Miri was addressed as ‘Miss’, and she seemed to be thinking about the children and the members of the Thieves’ Guild, so she was probably in a position with quite a lot of responsibility.

「We’re here.」

The headquarters of the Thieves’ Guild was a rustic stone building. There was no sense of design to it.

Its structure was plain and simple, but to make up for that, a large number of severe-looking men were ostentatiously stationed around it.

There was only one person at the entrance: an extremely capable-looking woman with narrow eyes. She came over to us.

「I’m the boss’ secretary, Noela.」

「Oh, hello.」

「The boss, the second-generation Dorothea, wants to thank you. Please follow me.」

When we stepped into the lobby, right after the entrance to the building, Noela said, 「Cat, Nick, please wait here.」

Separated from Miri and Nick, Ria, Deet and I followed Noela further and further into the building.

After going round and round several times, we arrived at a room guarded by two men.

「Please go in.」

At Noela’s instruction, we stepped inside. There was a thin curtain hanging up, and beyond it, a woman lying on a bed.